Alternatives
by CrossFaded
Summary: When Kamijou Touma replaced Shinji Ikari in his universe, it is Kaworu Nagisa that replaced Touma and not Shinji? Behind this apparent distortion lies a purpose far more complicated than convoluted.
1. 1: Into a Strange World (Part 1)

**Okay, so for easy reference, I'll list which are the chapters that focuses on the To Aru universe or the Eva universe here respectively. **

**Chapter 1 (To Aru)**

**Chapter 2 (Eva)**

**Chapter 3,4 (To Aru)**

**Chapter 5,6 (Eva)**

**Chapter 7 (To Aru)**

**EDIT: 26/03/2013**

**I've slightly edited Chapter 1 and 3 plotwise. There isn't really any major changes other than to fix some plot issues.**

**If you're reading this, I thank you for giving my story a chance by deciding to click on it due to my awesome summary that sucked you in. (jk) **

**Do review as always if you've got anything to say about the story. :D**

**EDIT: 17/04/2013**

**I made Chapter 1 to 7 much more logical by doing a slight plot change.**

**Plot change: Kaworu has a plan to save Shinji, but as we all know, plans do not translate well into reality. Future chapters will be built upon this idea.**

**Thanks for reading as always :)**

* * *

"And I was hoping I could finish the manga. Pity."

As he ran through the back alleys late at night, he glanced over his shoulder.

There were eight of them.

All according to the script.

Yes, it was July 19th, and the "fault" lay in that date.

Since summer break would start the next day, Kamijou Touma was in such high spirits that he grabbed a manga from the bookstore, entered a family restaurant to treat himself and found a middle school-aged girl surrounded by clearly drunk delinquents, and decided that some rescuing was in order.

Except that it was no longer Kamijou Touma, but Kaworu Nagisa who did all of these. If Kaworu had a choice, certainly he would choose to finish the manga instead of rescuing the girl... or rather the eight person that was currently chasing him right now.

Either way, in order to be sure that he'd meet a certain someone that is crucial in his plan to save Shinji, he had to follow the script.

After running for more than 2 kilometers, Kaworu ran out from the back alley and into the moonlit street.

Even if Academy City were as large as a third of Tokyo, he could see nothing but couples no matter where he looked. The three blades of the wind turbines located here and there throughout the area glittered in the pale moonlight and the lights of the city nightscape made them look like the tears of rich bachelors.

Exactly like how it was scripted, Kaworu thought. No strange deviations should be expected then.

Following Touma's strategy, he would let them catch occasional glimpses of him as bait so that they would continue to run and wear themselves out. It was akin to letting boxers hit you to weaken them.

Touma's goal was only to save any possible victims.

If he could lose them and have them give up without getting into a fistfight, he would win.

Kaworu smirked a little. Very clever. You are a smart guy, Touma.

As he alternated and weaved in and out through roads and back alleys while seemingly running about in a panic, he saw one and then another of the delinquents drop out of the chase, leaning forward with their hands on their knees.

Perfect. Another two more kilometers from running, he would exit the urban area and come to a large river with a large metal bridge that spanned the river. He looked forward to meeting the girl who would be at the bridge.

"Hey! You fucking brat! Stop, you master runner!"

Kaworu thought. Do you know I could run forever without stopping? I suppose that would be what the Lilins here define as ESPer abilities?

Finally, he arrived at the bridge.

It was about 150 meters across and no cars could be seen on it. Not lit up, the plain metal bridge was wrapped in darkness much like a midnight sea.

Kaworu glanced back as he darted across the bridge.

He then stopped: at some point, he had escaped all of his pursuers.

Perfect.

Now the girl should appear anytime soon.

"Really now, what are you doing? Do you think protecting those delinquents makes you a good person? Are you some overzealous teacher?"

Because the bridge had no lights, Kaworu had not noticed the girl standing about 5 meters ahead in the direction he had been running, a completely normal middle school girl wearing a gray pleated skirt, a short-sleeved blouse, and a summer sweater. The girl before him was the same one from the family restaurant.

"I don't understand. Is there a difference?"

"Of course. They are bad people and people like you... should be punished together with them as well."

The zapping sound of bluish-white sparks echoed. Rather than a stun gun, as her shoulder-length brown hair swayed, sparks flew from it like an electrode.

The moment a convenience store bag in the wind passed by her head, it was blown away by bluish-white sparks reminiscent of an interception device.

She sent a lightning beam from her palm towards Kaworu which he waved it away with his right hand.

"There. I cannot allow anyone to be more powerful than me. That is enough of a reason.

"But you're also treating me like an idiot. I'm a Level 5. Do you really think I would go all out against a powerless Level 0? I do know how to handle the weak."

In that city, the usual standard of a back alley delinquent being the strongest in a fight did not hold up. Those delinquents who could not keep up with the psychic powers development curriculum were the Level 0s, the powerless.

The truly strong in that city, the top-tier students, were ESPers.

Kaworu decided that he would have some fun trying to recite some of Touma's line.

"Yeah, about that, I do understand that you possess a talent that only 1 in 328,571 have. I really do. But if you want to live a long life, you should stop speaking to people so condescendingly."

"Shut up. If you couldn't bend a single spoon after having various crazy things done to you like have drugs injected directly into your blood vessels or have electrodes stabbed in through your ears and into the brain, what could it be but lack of talent?"

"…"

Maybe the 'you should stop speaking to people so condescendingly.' was a bit too harsh. I should have showered some compliments inside. Kaworu thought.

That was indeed the kind of place Academy City was.

The other side of Academy City could be seen in how means of developing the brain had been calmly added into the Curriculum under the name of "documentation methods" or "memorization methods".

However, not all of the 2.3 million students living in Academy City had ceased to be human and became something like a manga protagonist.

Just under 60% of the whole population were utterly useless Level 0s who could only bend a spoon after focusing their brain to the point of blood vessel bursts.

"If I need to bend a spoon, I can just use pliers, and if I need fire, I can just buy a cheap lighter. Also, what do I need telepathy for when I have a cell phone? Are psychic powers really that great?

"And everyone's priorities are all messed up. They're all rejoicing over the by-product we call psychic powers, but isn't our real objective something beyond that?"

Kaworu wanted her to fire a railgun since he was curious about it, thus he decided to recite the same lines that Touma did, up till the railgun part.

In response, the girl who was one of Academy City's seven Level 5s twisted the edges of her lips.

"Hahh? …Oh, that. What was it again? Something like, 'Humans cannot calculate god, so we need to acquire a body that exceeds humanity before we can arrive at god's answer', right?"

The girl gave a haughty laugh.

"Don't make me laugh. What is all this about the 'brain of god'? Did you know that my DNA map was analyzed and military Sisters were created based on it? It seems to me these lucrative side effects are more important than that objective."

"Those are the words of the strong."

In the silence, it felt as if the quality of the air was changing.

Kaworu continued. "Those are the fearless and cruel words of somebody who was born with his abilities and does not understand the pain of arriving there on his own."

The river below the bridge began to make an unsettling amount of noise.

A dark flame could be felt on the grit of her words that hinted at just how much of her humanity she had abandoned to arrive at the position of one of Academy City's seven Level 5s.

"I'm just a Level 0... though you're a Level 5. Relax."

Academy City's powers development heavily used things such as pharmaceutics, neuroscience, and cerebral physiology. It was a purely scientific endeavor. After undergoing the Curriculum to a certain extent, one could bend a spoon even without talent.

And yet Kamijou Touma could do nothing.

According to Academy City's instruments, he was truly powerless.

Kaworu wondered if his A.T field can be considered as an ESPer ability. Maybe a Level 5 as well? That would be interesting... but here, he technically existed as Kamijou Touma so perhaps just like him, the machine would not be able to detect anything, classifying him as powerless.

"Zero, you say," repeated the girl as if she was turning it over in her mouth. She stuck a hand in her skirt pocket and pulled out an arcade coin. "After so long, I just realised. Have you ever heard of the term Railgun?"

"Hmm?"

Kaworu sliently squealed with joy. Finally, he would get to see the railgun in action.

"The idea behind it is the same as a linear motor train. It is a ship-borne weapon that uses powerful electromagnets to fire a metal projectile."

The girl flicked the coin up into the air with her thumb. The coin rotated a few times before landing back onto her thumb.

"It refers to something like this."

Just as she spoke, an orange spear of light suddenly and silently shot past Kaworu's head. It was more like a laser than a spear. He could only tell it had originated from the girl's thumb because the afterimage of light stretched back to it.

Almost like thunder, the noise rumbled in with a slight delay and a shockwave tore through the air around his ears. Unlike Touma who partially lost his sense of balance, causing him to stagger, Kaworu remained stable and glanced over his shoulder.

"So that's a railgun, very impressive I must say."

The instant the orange light struck the road surface on the bridge, the asphalt was blown away like an airplane making an emergency landing on the ocean. Even after travelling a 30 meter path of utter destruction and stopping, the orange afterglow was still burning the air like an afterimage.

"You know, even a coin like this can be quite powerful when it's fired at three times the speed of sound. Of course, the coin melts after 50 meters because of air friction."

That bridge made of steel and concrete swayed like an unreliable suspension bridge. Failing metal bolts could be heard occasionally.

"So... You used that to punish them?"

"Don't be stupid. I match my methods to my opponent. I don't want to accidentally become a murderer." As she spoke, sparks flew from the girl's brown hair like an electrode. "This was enough for those Level 0s."

Bluish-white sparks now flew from the girl's bangs like a horn and a spear-like line of lightning flew towards Kaworu.

He calmly held his right hand up to his face, allowing the lightning spear to strike it. It rampaged through Kaworu's body and sparks scattered in every direction and into the bridge's steel framework.

Or so it seemed.

"So, why are you completely unhurt?"

Her words seemed lighthearted enough, but the girl was glaring at Kaworu.

Yes, this is because of the Imagine Breaker, a power that stuck with Kaworu as a result of existing as Touma.

Any supernatural power, even if it were part of god's system, would be negated without question by that power of Kamijou Touma.

As it was supernatural in origin, even that girl's Railgun ability was no exception.

"Honestly, what's with you? That power of yours isn't listed in Academy City's Bank. If I'm a one in 328,571 genius, then you're a one in 2,300,000 disaster," the girl muttered in annoyance but Kaworu chose to not give even a single word in response. "If I pick a fight with an exception like that, I might be able to raise my level, don't you think?"

"But you never win."

He received a response in the form of more lightning that shot from her forehead, well over mach one at that.

However, it scattered in every direction the instant it met Kaworu's right hand.

It was very much like a water balloon bursting.

Kaworu had already accepted his fate that he could no longer manifest his A.T field due to the presence of that pesky Imagine Breaker.

"I guess you could say that was either some misfortune or you're just unlucky."

That was how Kamijou Touma brought that day, July 19th, to an end. And somehow, Kaworu Nagisa.

"You just really aren't lucky at all."

* * *

Kamijou Touma awoke to an unfamiliar celling of a hospital ward. Normally, there would be just a single fluorescent lighting but this time it was two. Even the smell was different. Perhaps his usual ward was finally occupied by someone else other than him.

The Roman Catholic Church's ritual in Academy City that involved the Spear of Longinus to attain powers equal to the Imagine Breaker itself summoned an Angel instead.

According to Index, his designated name is Tabris, the Angel of Free Will and the vessel of Adam.

People in Academy City started to melt into liquid one by one as the floating, huge red sphere in the centre of the city that the smiling Angel under the soft moonlight was sitting on grew bigger and bigger. Apparently, not even the church understood the true nature of Spear of Longinus.

Since that angel belonged to another universe, much is unknown about him, other than the fact that this phenomenon of people turning into liquid is known vaguely as Instrumentality; the forced evolution of humanity.

The basis is that this would create an existence where nobody existed singularly, but merely as part of the whole, hence, the flaws in every living being would be complemented by the strengths in others, erasing the insecurities in people's hearts.

SYSTEM would theorically be achieved since this would create a single being that surpasses humans.

But Touma would not accept this, if Instrumentality was the final destination of God's will, then he must first shatter that illusion.

Thus, his decision to bring forth his right hand to punch that angel and he disappeared with a single touch of his hand.

He had negated Instrumentality and the angel itself with the Imagine Breaker.

A brief moment later, it felt like a vacuum cleaner that was sucking all of Touma's consciousness and slowly, he blacked out, but at least he knew that once again, another disaster had been averted.

Looking around his ward, he realized that there were more machines that was attached to his body. Other than that, there is no difference between his usual ward and the new ward.

"How badly was I hurt..." Touma said as he noted that the machines attached to him were not of Academy City, based on his extensive knowledge of the apparatuses in the hospital since he's a regular.

Just then, he heard a soft knock on the door.

"Ikari, are you okay?"

A girl who wore a dark green sundress with a white blouse underneath softly spoke as she stood beside him.

Touma looked at the pale skinned girl close to an albino with blue, cropped hair quizzically. He was half-expecting a certain Misaka Mikoto to rush beside him worriedly instead.

"Did you get the wrong room or something...?"

"Ikari Shinji. Ward 407. This cannot be the wrong room."

Perhaps the hospital staff mixed him up with another guy, and it just so happen that this Ikari Shinji resembled him so much that people might just mistake the both of them as twins. Such misfortune.

"Look, I'm Kamijou Touma and perhaps Ikari Shinji is now waiting for you in another ward."

"Did you lose your memory from that battle?"

"Ah?"

He was certain that he still remembered everyone clearly, from a certain July 24th onwards when he tried to save Index from getting her memory erased. Touma wondered if that 'battle' referred to this incident.

"Do you still remember who I am?"

This could be someone that I once knew before I lost my memories, Touma thought.

Observing the girl once more, he tried to look for any special features on that girl which might give him a clue about her relationship with him. Nothing. While the sundress she was wearing looked somewhat like the school uniforms in Academy City, but he had no idea which school she might be from.

"Haha... Yeah, you're from the same class as me, right? Thanks for visiting me."

He hoped the bluff worked, but given his misfortune, it often backfired.

"... My name is Ayanami Rei. This is a hospital in Tokyo-3."

She turned away with a sad look in her eyes and walked out of the ward.

Touma wondered who could that Ayanami Rei be.

Accelerator was the only albino that he personally knew of... other than that, nobody else.

And then, Kamijou Touma realized one thing.

Academy City's technology is 30 years ahead of its time, there is no reason why he should be sent to a hospital in Tokyo-3. Besides that, there is no Tokyo-3 in the entire map of Japan.

But if he's here in Tokyo-3, and assuming that the girl didn't lie, there could be only one conclusion.

Somehow, when he negated Instrumentality, he got sucked into another dimension.

In his life, there had been many misfortunate incidents that he got himself into. If this wasn't the worst, what could be even worst than that?

"SUCH MISFORTUNE!"

* * *

**Author's note**: Well, this is just an idea that I left it to mature for a few days after it popped out of my mind during a class.

Hope you guys enjoy the story :)


	2. 2: Into a Strange World (Part 2)

"So you're telling me that Academy City doesn't exist?"

"Yes. Oh, Shinji. Did that explosion knock you silly?" A young, beautiful woman with long purple hair said as the both of them stepped out of an elevator.

Greeting the both of them was a colossal hallway characterized by conveyor belts.

Whatever fortune that Touma had left was probably not having to walk as the belts did their jobs perfectly; getting people from one place to another with ease.

According to this woman whom she introduced herself as Katsuragi Misato, he's sent here in Tokyo-3 to live with his father after 11 years of separation, Ikari Gendo.

Touma briefly flipped through the information booklet given to him by Misato.

NERV, an a paramilitary special agency that leads the defense of mankind against the Angels through Evangelions, though what how exactly it defended mankind was only briefly elaborated upon. According to the map in the information booklet, both him and Misato are now inside it's headquarters known as GeoFront.

"That's strange. I thought this was the correct way." Misato said as she struggled to make sense of the map, turning it clockwise once before turning it back.

"... Such misfortune."

Touma had half expected himself to end up somewhere far away from Academy City at the very least, not to end up somewhere where Academy City didn't exist. Then again, it's all part of the Imagine Breaker package, a lifetime supply of misfortune.

Soon, the conveyor belts led to them into another elevator, ascending a few floors up. Misato was certain that they're now on the right path.

Not that Touma could count on her, one look at her fumbling with the map would lead one to conclude that her sense of direction is pretty much screwed.

Greeting them once again was not another colossal hallway but a displeased looking woman with blonde hair wearing a lab coat over a swimming suit.

Misato smiled sheepishly, "Ah... Ritsuko."

"Honestly, I drew you an idiot-proof map and you still got lost."

"Sorry!"

Ritsuko turned to look at Touma as she asked Misato, "So, this is the boy?"

"According to the report, he's the Third Child."

How Touma wanted to scream out loud that he isn't some Ikari Shinji nor some Third Child sent to live with his father, but he gave up when a quick 5 minutes DNA test in the hospital proved that he is indeed so. Could this be some conspiracy to cover up the fact that the real Ikari Shinji died in order to send him to deceive an old man who probably wanted to spend his last days with his son?

Whatever the case, he could only play it by ear.

After a long trip in near darkness on what seemed like a ferry wheel that was going up, Touma could faintly make out a door of a room that the 3 of them promptly entered.

This time, it was complete darkness and he could only wonder why were they in such a room. Nothing lewd he hoped, although he was already of legal age and he doubted that the both of them were under-aged.

With a sharp click, light illuminated the entire area and Touma found himself staring into the eyes of a purple, monstrous figure, startling him quite a bit.

Upon closer inspection, it looked more like a giant robot which was immersed into an ocean of a pale pinkish-purple substance.

They were standing on a umbilical bridge, connecting the platform of the entrance to another platform separated by that purple ocean.

"Evangelion Unit 01. Built here in secrecy, this is our last hope against the Angels!" Ritsuko declared proudly, her voice ringing through the large room.

"Right, and I'm supposed to pilot it right?" Touma had seen enough mecha animes to know where this was going to lead to. A chosen one destined to save the world, how cliche. But it's a cliche that always works, just got to know how package it.

"I'm impressed that you reailsed this soon than I thought. Yes, you're the Third Child, the designated pilot for Unit 01." Misato said.

"That's right, it's been a long time huh."

Touma turned to see a bearded man with sunglasses appearing in a large screen placed far above him. It was the same man in a picture given to him by Misato. Gendo Ikari, Shinji's father. She thought that perhaps after 11 years of separation, he would have long forgotten how his father looked like.

"And I suppose this Evangelion here is a result of your brilliant work?"

Choosing to ignore Touma's question, he said in a firm yet soft tone, "Move out."

Misato quickly protested, "But Rei is still injured!

"Don't tell me, Unit 01? Rei possibly can't be piloting in her condition! We no longer have any pilots left."

"One just arrived," was Ritsuko's reply to Misato.

"You can't be serious!"

Placing a hand on Touma's shoulder, Ritsuko asked, "Will you pilot this?"

Looking at the Unit 01, he started to consider whether or not he should keep up with that pretense; that he isn't Shinji Ikari.

Being a pilot of that monstrous robot took skills, something that he obviously did not possess.

Judging from the situation and his extensive knowledge about the mecha genre, he would most probably be sent out to deal with a certain threat that was as big or bigger than the robot.

Touma noted that Unit 01 was so well-polished that he could clearly see his own reflection inside. Still had that purple, spiky hair and the same face. What a relief that his appearance didn't change at all. And then, an idea struck him.

He had remembered reading a manga about a boy set on a quest to save his friends trapped in their own dreams. The only way to save them was to convince them that their seemingly perfect world is fake.

Unfortunately, before he could finish that manga, it somehow ended up in his washing machine. Nevertheless, the idea is there.

Prove that he isn't Shinji Ikari through appearances. Even though the chances of succeeding is 0.000000001%, but it is not zero and Touma prayed hard to be doubly misfortunate back in Academy City in exchange for one moment of fortune.

"I'm not Shinji at all."

"Even the DNA test proved that you're Shinji! If you don't want to pilot this thing, just say so. Don't have to spin such a ridiculous lie," said Misato.

"I have purple, spiky hair and I look nothing like my father who is standing the screen far above us."

This was where his fortune that he prayed hard for comes into play.

Since the man above is really Shinji's father, a shocking revelation would soon reveal itself in a grandiose manner of stripping away the darkness that concealed it. After that, everything around him will start to slowly break apart into tiny pieces and then, voila, back in Academy City!

"You... dyed your hair?"

Gendo abruptly interrupted the conversation, "Enough. If you don't want to pilot it, then pack up and go home."

Turning to a screen that quickly placed an old, wizened man into view, he said, "Fuyutsuki, wake up Rei."

"Is she available?"

"She isn't dead yet."

"Understood."

Touma buried his face in defeat.

Honestly, is his purple, spiky hair the only difference between him and that Shinji Ikari?

Now it was Misato's turn to place a hand onto Touma.

"Don't run away. You can do it."

That wasn't the point. The fact that he is not Shinji Ikari meant that he might screw up and endanger the lives of everybody.

Even that Rei that was sent in would do a much better job than him. Touma wondered if that Rei was the same Rei that visited him in the hospital today.

Soon, a hospital bed was rolled into the room by three nurses. Touma saw that a pale girl with cropped, blue hair wearing a white form-fitting body suit was lying on bed.

"Configure the Unit so that Rei can pilot it," said Ritsuko to a worker at the other platform.

The nurses quickly unhooked the girl from the accompanying medical equipment as she now sat on the bed. Her breathing was labourious and wincing in pain, she closed her eyes momentarily.

"It can't be... Ayanami Rei?" Touma said.

Misato looked at him slightly puzzled, "Yes, how did you know?"

"She visited me in the hospital today."

"Don't be silly, she's been hospitalized for days."

Only in horror stories could such a thing happen, how misfortunate to be visited by a ghost. But then again, it made no sense since Rei isn't dead yet.

_So how did she...?_

'BOOM!'

A sudden explosion shook the entire room, causing Rei to fall violently onto the ground from her bed. Meanwhile, the bars of fluorescent lighting hanging at the top were shaken apart and it was falling right towards Touma.

"Shinji!"

Instinctively, Touma got out of the way by making a wide leap to his left before it could make a pancake out of him. Years of dealing with ESPers and recently, magicians had trained him well in situations like this.

Touma noted that the man looked slightly displeased with the outcome, much to his surprise.

Was he expecting his son to manifest a protective field?

Then again, this isn't Academy City and ESPers probably do not exist here.

Running towards Rei who was just ahead, he picked her up and held her in his arms.

"Are you okay?"

Grimacing in pain, she could not say a single word in response. Her breathing was increasingly short and irregular but yet she struggled to move. It seemed as though she had to get into that giant robot.

Touma realized that he did not have much of a choice now.

"I'll pilot it."

* * *

Seated in the entry plug, Touma could feel the plug tilting foward as the docking system proceeded to insert it inside Unit 01. He hoped that his experience from watching Gundam would help in plioting the robot. Seeing how the controls had a similar layout to a Gundam was a good start.

_"Insert LCL into the entry plug."_

Touma watched horrified as the yellow, translucent liquid soon threatened to rise to a level above his head, "What in the world is that?"

"Don't worry. The LCL will supply oxygen once it fills your lung." Ritsuko's voice cracked over the intercom.

Despite his best efforts to hold his breath under the LCL, but no human could hold their breath indefinitely. In the end, he ended up explosively expelling all the air in his lungs, sending a uncontrollable surge of LCL right into his lungs and causing him to splutter in shock. Soon, he was breathing in the 'LCL'.

Touma felt as though he was breathing in the air of a rotting corpse, "Such misfortune."

"You're a boy, aren't you. Bear with it." It was Misato's voice this time.

_"Synchronization ratio 41.3%"_

In the command centre, Ritsuko examined a graph from a screen that represented the synchronization ratio of the pliot.

The waveforms seemed to merging into one before slightly deviating from each other. Harmonics were also perfectly normal.

Except that... the harmonics of the Eva's right hand to the pliot seemed to be too good to be true.

In fact, this alone accounted for 24% of the ratio, which is just 7% below the passing ratio for an Eva to be operationally ready.

"Impressive."

Turning to Misato, she said, "It'll move."

"Lanuch Unit 01!"

Soon, the view of the GeoFront quickly passed by as the Eva was carried toward the surface through a chute. The hatch doors above the Eva opened as it broke through the surface.

Landing on a road surface, Touma saw that Tokyo-3 from the Eva looked like a grassy field, but all the grass instead were different form of buildings and grasses generally do not grow up to your waist.

Just about 3 buildings ahead, Touma could see a large humanoid being with exaggerated proportions, such as its arms reaching below the knee.

There was a white bony structure acting as an amour for its shoulder and for holding a large, red orb in the centre of the being's dark green body that almost blended into the velvet black of the night sky.

"Just think about moving for now, the monster ahead is an Angel that you must defeat," came a voice over the intercom. No doubt it was that Ritsuko's voice.

Right, Touma thought. He felt like a soul taking over his victim's body, albeit a lousy one in the arts of possession. He decided on his routine warm-up before Physical Education back in school.

Misato put a hand to her face as she saw the Eva doing a few, quick ankle bounces and a walking quad stretch in both of his legs before bringing both of its leg up as it did a skip and finally, a large sprint towards the being with his right fist raised.

It seemed as though the warm up worked. Touma now understood how to at least get this robot to move. Similar to how a human would walk or talk, all you have is to think about it.

Whoever invented the controls for this Eva was a complete genius.

"Aim for the core, it's that red orb!"

Sensing a presence rushing towards him, the Angel slowly turned its body around to see a giant purple robot slightly taller than him swerving its right fist towards his core. Yet, it remained calm as it raised a barrier characterized by concentric octagonal yellow lines in response...

Only to find it shattered apart by that right fist. However, before it could reach the core, the pieces started to rapidly fall back into place, severing it from the wrist cleanly.

"DAMM!"

Touma clutched his right arm wildly as it started to throb violently with the some of the veins becoming completely visible. It felt as though multiple blades were simultaneously piercing in and out of his arm.

"The pain is not real! Calm down!" The voice spoke anxiously.

Taking advantage of this delay as the Eva gripped its right arm with its left hand from the pain, the Angel grabbed it by the throat and lifted it off the ground. A mysterious shining lance appeared from its shoulder and punctuated the Eva's left eye as it attempted to penetrate through the cranium.

"ARGH!"

Touma's line of vision instantly became a hazy rainbow separated by a cracking glass. The wider the crack got, the more pain he felt in his eye.

Relentless in its attempt as it seeked to destroy that purple hindrance, Touma flung himself wildly about the entry plug as he desperately struggled to escape the pain. This was the only thing which flooded his mind. Any attempt to think about retaliatation promptly got rejected by the pain.

"SHINJI! MOVE!" Misato yelled as she watched the hapless Eva continue to violently squirm about as it gripped its right arm without any attempts to retaliate.

"The amour won't take much more." stated Ritsuko with a horrified look on her face as she also observed the Eva and the Angel inside the command center from one of the multiple screens available.

Finally, the lance successfully penetrated through and by extension of its length, it sent the Eva crashing into a nearby building. Deep, crimson blood started to gush out from the wound caused by the lance. Both Touma and the Eva lay unconscious from the attack.

_Move._

In a strange darkness, that was what Touma could hear. A soft, feminine voice that sounded strangely like Misaka. He tried to reply, but he realised that nothing was coming out from his mouth.

_Move._

The same voice repeated itself again. This time, it was slightly more urgent.

_Move._

_Move. _

_MOVE!_

It seemed as though the person was on the verge of tears as the voice grew more and more desperate. Yet, Touma was trapped in the darkness. He couldn't get the Eva to move even if he wanted to.

_KAMIJOU TOUMA!_

"...!"

* * *

Touma found himself back in the same ward, lying in the same bed again. That unfamiliar celling and the smell, surely it was that same ward.

Surprisingly, the same machines from before, once again was attached to him. He wondered if this could be a time loop due to his existence not belonging to this universe.

Hopefully not... no wait, hopefully this would be so!

If he managed to break that time loop, surely the end result would be getting whisked back into Academy City somehow.

Fumbling through the darkness, Touma tried to recall what exactly happened between the time he was trapped in the darkness and lying in the same hospital ward again.

All he could recall was a continuous, maniacal laughter reverberating in the darkness.

* * *

"You Aquarii born between January 20th and February 18th have the greatest luck in love, work, and money! No matter how incredibly improbable things may get, only good things will happen, so how about you go play the lottery!? But no matter how popular you may be, don't try dating three or four girls at the same time ."

One of the Lilin's favourite hobbies, horoscopes.

Kaworu could not understand why do the Lilins continue believing in something that was mostly proven false all the time.

Information and assurance about the future, a way to be absolved of their current situation and future decisions, and a way to feel connected to the entire cosmos?

And Ikari Shinji chose to reject Instrumentality despite all of this, he thought as he sat in the sofa in Touma's dorm room that was ruled by a boiling heat due to a broken air conditioner.

Not that he felt particularly bothered about the heat. To him, it was just like being aware of the heat, but yet there's no compelling reason to react to it.

Should he feel annoyed and frustrated just like how a normal Lilin would?

A viable choice considering that Kamijou Touma is after all, a Lilin existence.

Kamijou Touma experienced nothing but misfortune to the extent that his life could in essence be called a running gag.

But he had no intention of just lazing around because of bad luck.

Kamijou did not rely on luck. In other words, he had a lot of drive. Rei should have left the decision to somebody like him instead of Shinji during Instrumentality. Perhaps if she had done so, Shinji would not end up being trapped here as a result of going back in time 1,000,568,392 times.

He glanced over to the balcony with the screen door opened near his sofa.

Other than a yakisoba bread still in its plastic wrapping on the floor, there was nothing else other than the blue morning sky with the birds chirping happily to emphasize the fact that today's weather is beautiful and people should just go out instead of staying at home and watch weird stuffs on the internet.

Kaworu had already collected the futon that Touma left hanging outside. A guest was coming and he didn't want the futon to be a hinderance.

A certain guest who had pure white skin and her hair was as sliver as well.

Wearing a long dress that reached her ankles and a one-piece hood over her head that was a bit different from a hat.

Just then, a white figure appeared out of nowhere and fell upon the balcony railing.

It seemed as though it exhaustedly collapsed across a metal rod and had her waist pressed up against the railing. Her body bent such that her arms and legs were dangling straight down.

The guest had arrived. A crucial piece in his plan to save Shinji had arrived.

_Index Librorum Prohibitorum._

* * *

**Author's note: **If you liked the story, do leave a review (or follow and favourite it!) ^^

And yes, I am aware that A.T fields can't really shatter since they are actually membranes in nature, but then again its Touma and his Imagine Breaker so why not? Don't worry, there is a reason behind it which I may or may not directly reveal depending on the flow of the story.

Oh, and just a quick question. Do you guys actually believe in horoscopes? Personally for me, nay. The thing that they usually predict are usually events that could never happen to me. Eg. You will get backstabbed by your boss today. But I'm a student for crying out loud!


	3. 3: Index Librorum Prohibitorum

Kaworu went closer to observe his guest, stepping onto the yakisoba bread intentionally.

The girl's lovely fingertips twitched and her head slowly rose from its hanging position. Her silk-like silver hair smoothly split to either side like a curtain and the girl's face appeared from between the long, long hair. Her white skin and green eyes made her seemed like a doll to Kaworu. Yes, this is indeed the nun, Index.

Index's cute but slightly dried lips slowly moved, "I..."

"I'm hungry."

Kaworu remained slient as he continued to observe her.

"I'm hungry."

"…"

"I'm hungry."

"…"

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm hungry?"

The silver-haired girl seemed to get a little irate at how Kaworu stood there like a breathtaking piece of art.

"Hmm." he said as he stared at the girl draped over the balcony railing. "What? Are you trying to say you collapsed from exhaustion or something?"

"You could also say I have collapsed and am about to die."

"…"

"It would be great if you could feed me enough food to fill me up."

Finally, the yakisoba bread that has been under Kaworu's feet throughout found its true purpose in life other than being stepped on like trash. He took it and stuck it up her mouth, certain that despite the sour whiff that it was giving off, she would eat it anyway.

"Thank you. And it's time to eat."

Her mouth engulfed it along with the wrapping, Kaworu's arm included.

Honestly, I have no idea why this certain Kamijou Touma could be so misfortunate, Kaworu thought.

Nevertheless, he could not slip up now. Everything must fit the model according to the script.

* * *

"I suppose I need to start with an introduction."

"Actually, I would rather you started explaining why you were hanging there."

"My name is Index."

"That's clearly a fake name. What do you mean by Index? What are you, a table of contents?"

"As you can see, I am from the church. This is important. Oh, but I'm not from the Vatican. I'm from the Anglican Church."

"I don't know what that means and you're just going to ignore my questions?"

"Hmm, is Index lacking? Well then, my magic name is Dedicatus545."

"Anyways, it would be great if you could feed me enough food to fill me up." She continued.

Kaworu and her were politely sitting there facing each other from across a glass table like it was a marriage interview.

Though he did not leave soon, he would be late for his supplementary lessons, but he could hardly leave this strange person in his room. Also, Index seemed to have taken a liking to the room to the point that she seemed willing to laze about on the floor.

"Sit there. I'll get you something to eat."

Kaworu headed to the kitchen and realised that all of the food in the fridge were already spolit. Of course, it was all that Level 5's fault that there was a city-wide blackout which resulted in 80% of the electrical appliances in the house being taken out. Not that he actually needed food to survive, thus he had neglected to replace the food in the fridge in advance.

He muttered as he put a frying pan onto the stove, "Now, the fire..."

Taking whatever food that was left from the fridge, he began to cook something that seemed like stir-fry vegetables.

While he put some soy sauce onto the dish, he continued his questions, "So why were you hanging out to dry on my balcony?"

"I wasn't hanging out to dry."

"Then what were you doing? Were you blown over and landed there?"

"...Something like that."

Kaworu stopped moving the frying pan as he turned around to face the girl.

"I fell. I was trying to jump from rooftop to rooftop."

Rooftop?

Kaworu realised that cheap student dorms lined the building level and even more of the same types of eight-story buildings were lined up as he looked up at the celling. One glance out the balcony showed a gap of two meters between buildings. It was true that a running jump could get you from one rooftop to another. However...

"But that's eight stories high? One wrong step and you'd be heading straight to hell."

"Yes, you don't even get a grave if you commit suicide," said Index cryptically. "But I had no choice. I had no other means of escape."

"Escape?"

"Yes," said Index like a child. "I was being chased."

"..."

Kaworu moved his frying pan while he continued to face Index. Multi-tasking isn't that hard, even for an ordinary Lilin.

"I made my jump fine, but I was shot in the back in midair." The girl calling herself Index seemed to smile. "I apologize. It seems I was caught on your balcony as I fell."

She tossed an innocent smile in his direction without even a hint of self-deprecation or sarcasm.

"You were shot...?"

"Yes? Oh, you don't need to worry about a wound. These clothes also function as a defensive barrier."

What did she mean by a defensive barrier? Was it a bulletproof vest? Or an A.T field that would somehow manifest itself? Awesome.

The girl spun around as if to show off new clothes and certainly did not seem injured. Kaworu wondered whether she really had been shot.

Finally, Kaworu was done with cooking and he put the frying pan, still sizzling from the heat onto the dining table with Index already seated. It seemed as though he was cooking a nice meal for his weird cosplaying younger sister who concidentally was a sister, but to be more specific, a nun.

Putting both of her hands together in a prayer, "I gladly receive!", she said as she started digging into the food.

"So why were you being chased?"

It didn't take long for Index to finish the food, in fact, she literally drank the food as if it was a form of liquid. Ignoring the fact that the food was hot and had a bitter sour taste, Kaworu concluded that this Index might just be another life form all together.

"Because of the 103,000 grimoires I possess."

"Are you the secret key to a library storing those grimoires?"

"I am the library itself."

Kaworu cocked his head to one side in disbelief, "Seriously? Are those grimoires things that the Lilins cannot see?"

"Lilins...?"

Right, how could he have forgotten so fast that this was Touma's universe. Is this what the Lilins would call a Freudian slip? Not that it was a major mistake, just a quick explaination presented in the most casual way possible would suffice.

"It's a Japanese slang for people."

"Oh."

"So what are exactly does the grimoires do?"

"Magic."

Kaworu smiled in response to that, "I don't believe in magic."

"Magic exist!"

"Well, in Academy City, psychic powers are pretty common such as pyrokinesis or telepathy. But magic, no, it probably doesn't exist."

Index pouted as she pointed a finger at him, "If you believe in psychic powers, then why would you not believe in magic?"

"Those psychic powers can be explained by science... It's just like..." Kaworu sighed. He should have taken the language lessons more seriously back in SEELE's HQ.

"Hehe. So you believe in magic after all."

"If you say magic exist, then why don't you prove it then."

"... But I have no magic powers."

A triumphant smile formed on Kaworu's face, "So magic doesn't exist after all."

"I don't believe in psychic powers too. Why don't you prove it then." This was her childish comeback from her defeat.

Kaworu's gaze dropped to his right hand.

Imagine Breaker. A mysterious ability that could negate any supernatural power. It could even negate one of God's miracle. Such a strange ability that even Kaworu could not fully comprehend its true power.

"I... have no psychic powers." His voice almost dropped to a whisper, still keeping his gaze on his hand.

Index got off from her chair and did a little victory dance, "So you believe magic does exist after all," she said in a sing-song manner.

Kaworu directed her gaze upon his right hand, "Any form of power, regardless it is psychic or magic, it can be negated. Even God's miracle can be negated by this right hand of mine," he proudly declared, just like how a five year old child would say when he successfully snatched his younger brother's toy.

"Then you'll be able to negate this defensive barrier made of magic, that is if your right hand is really that powerful."

"Where is it?"

"I'm wearing it!"

"You mean this piece of white flimsy cloth is a defensive barrier? Don't be silly."

In response to that, Index hurriedly rush to the kitchen and offered him a knife, "Stab me."

Curious at how it might function as defensive barrier, Kaworu took the knife and lightly jabbed at her abdomen. And then, with one swift strike, he sent the knife right through her 'barrier' only to find the blade shattered into pieces.

Index puffed her chest out with pride, "This is an accurate copy of the Shroud of Turin, the cloth worn by the Saint that was stabbed by the Lance of Longinus, so its strength is Pope-class. I guess you would say it's something like a nuclear shelter. It turns aside or absorbs any attack, be it physical or magical. I told you I got caught on your balcony after getting shot, right? Well, I would have a giant hole in me if it wasn't for the Walking Church."

Kaworu threw the handle onto the floor and took a step back away from her cautiously.

Lance of Longinus...?

She grinned as she observed how scared Kaworu seemed, "Is the revelation of the existence of Magic proving too much for you?"

And then, a faint glow started to radiate from his body. With her knowledge of the 103,000 grimoires, she knew exactly what that glow was.

"Telesma?!"

Instinctively, Kaworu reached out his right hand and lunged forward, pushing Index onto the sofa.

He soon stopped glowing and so she got up and asked, "Who exactly are you?"

"Kamijou Touma."

"That's not your real name."

"Kamijou Touma."

Index sighed and shot an understanding smile towards Kaworu, "I see. I should be going now, lest I disturb your peaceful existence."

However, as she made her way to the door, her Walking Chruch came apart as if it got slashed into 3 pieces without any harm to the wearer. Strangely, she didn't seem to notice that her surroundings just got a lot more cooler. As a moral obligation for this Lilin, Kaworu decided to be nice for once.

"Stop there."

Index turned around and looked at him in a confused manner.

"Look down."

And so, this was what she promptly did.

"HYAAAAA!"

* * *

"Oh god. And I thought I was being nice."

Kaworu sat on the floor while Index was wrapped from head to toe with a blanket on the sofa, attempting to fix her broken Walking Chruch with safety pins. Apparently, this nun had the habit of biting people when angered, Kaworu noted as he saw the bite marks on various parts of his body.

"Even if you're not human, it is no good for you to be peeking at my body."

"It wasn't even my fault."

"And to think you don't believe in magic when you yourself possesses mana."

"What is mana?"

"Don't talk to me you idiot. Are you trying to make fun of me?"

If it's true that he possessed 'mana', which is certainly not a natural thing for a Lilin to possess, then Touma's existence that has gotten involved in Index's life had already deviated from the script. Hmm... but wouldn't the Imagine Breaker negate that 'mana'? Hopefully, the model would not collapse simply because he had 'mana'.

Index unwrapped the blanket slowly like a butterfly struggling to get out from its cocoon.

"Complete!"

And from that cocoon appeared a certain Index who was triumphantly blowing air from her nose, wearing the pure white nun's habit that had somehow regained its original form from that hellish do-it-yourself job.

"Time to go now." Index said as she made her way to the door once more.

"Don't you want to stay here instead? It's safer here since you can hide from your enemies."

"If I stay here, the enemy would come anyway."

"But the Walking Church has been destroyed by my hand. They can't track you anymore. Or so that's what I think."

"They'll know its destroyed anyway. Simply put, it's like a fortress. If I were the enemy, I would make an appearance when that fortress was destroyed whatever the reason might be."

"All the more you should stay here."

"..."

Index smiled a heartbreaking smile, "If you really want to abandon your peaceful existence here… Then, will you follow me to the depths of hell?

"It's okay. So long as I can find a church, they'll shelter me from the enemy."

"If you're ever in any trouble, you can stop by here again. Or if you're hungry."

She raised a hand to wave goodbye, "Sure thing. You're a good cook," before she left the apartment.

* * *

"Okay, I have a handout for you. Follow along while we go through this supplementary lesson."

The homeroom teacher of Year 1 Class 7, Tsukuyomi Komoe, was a ridiculous teacher who was so short that only her head could be seen when she stood behind her desk.

According to Kaworu's knowledge, that little girl teacher was one of the school's seven mysteries: at 135 cm tall, there was a legend saying she was refused a roller coaster ride due to safety concerns, and looked to the world like a 12 year old who should be carrying a soprano recorder with a yellow hard hat and a red elementary school backpack.

Interacting with people like how Lilins do in school was not his strong point, so he was glad that he had successfully memorized this part perfectly.

"I won't stop you from talking amongst yourselves, but you need to listen to what I say. I put a lot of effort into making a quiz, so if you do poorly on it, you will be punished with the See Through lesson."

"Isn't that where you play poker with a blindfold on!? That's part of the Curriculum for Clairvoyance! I've heard you can't leave until you win 10 times in a row despite not being able to see your cards, so wouldn't we just be stuck here until morning!?" protested Kaworu.

"Oh, but Kamijou-chan, you don't have enough development credits, so you'll be doing the See Through lesson regardless."

Kaworu sighed, since Touma was at a loss of words when faced with the salesman smile of a salary man teacher, so did he. Acting is fun, no wonder the Lilins are always acting to one another as if it was a necessity to survive. So it's just fun for them.

"…Mhh. I see. Komoe-chan finds you so cute she just can't help herself, Kami-yan," said Aogami Pierce who was a blue-haired male with pierced ear although he is the class representative sitting next to Kaworu.

"…Do you sense malice coming from that teacher's back as she enjoyably stretches up to reach the blackboard?"

"What? What's wrong with having such a cute teacher scold you for failing a quiz? Getting physically abused by a little kid like that gets you a ton of experience points, Kami-yan."

"I knew you were a lolicon, but you're a masochist, too!? You really are hopeless!"

"Ah hah! It's not that I like lolis! It's that I also like lolis!"

"You two over there! If you say a single word more, you'll be stuck with Columbus's Egg."

Just as one would expect, Columbus's Egg involved standing a raw egg upside down on a desk without anything supporting it. Those specializing in Psychokinesis could keep the egg from falling when they worked to the point of the blood vessels in their brain almost bursting. (It was actually an extremely difficult challenge because the egg would break if the Psychokinesis was too powerful.) As with the previous example, you would be stuck there until morning if you could not do it.

Aogami Pierce stared at Tsukuyomi Komoe while forgetting to breathe. Kaworu remained calm as always.

"Okay?"

Her smile was quite frightening.

While Komoe loved being called "cute", she became incredibly irate when called "small".

However, she did not seem to mind being looked down on by the students. Part of it was just something inevitable within Academy City. The city was a veritable Neverland where over 80% of the population was students. The opposition to salary man teachers was harsh even compared to a normal school, and more importantly, the "strength" of a student was based on both their academic ability and their power.

The teachers were the ones that developed the students, but the teachers themselves had no powers. Some, like the PE teachers and guidance counselors, seemed like they were from foreign units because they trained Level 3 monsters with their own fists. However, it would be cruel to expect that from a chemistry teacher like Komoe.

"…Hey, Kami-yan."

"What?'

"Would it turn you on to get lectured by Komoe-sensei?"

"I'm not you! Just shut up already, idiot! If we have to play with a raw egg even though we don't have Psychokinesis, we'll be spending our entire summer break here! If you get it, shut that fake Kansai dialect mouth of yours!"

"Fake… D-D-D-D-D-Don't call it fake! I'm really from Osaka!"

"Shut up. I know you're from a rice region. I'm in a bad mood, so don't make me play the straight man right now."

"I-I-I'm not from a rice region! Ah. A-ahhh! I sure do love takoyaki."

"Stop trying to force yourself into the Kansai role! Are you going to bring takoyaki for lunch just to fill this role?"

"What are you talking about? It's not like someone from Osaka eats only takoyaki, right?"

"…"

"Right? I think that's right…no, wait. But… but yeah… but huh? Which is it?"

"You're falling out of character, Mr. Fake Kansai," said Kaworu before sighing and looking out the window.

The Walking Church, the cloth worn by the Saint that was stabbed by the Lance of Longinus. Somehow, from that cloth, he realized that he had another power other than the Imagine Breaker.

Then again, what exactly is mana or Telesma? Is it something not of supernatural origin because if it was, the Imagine Breaker would have negated them away.

"Sensei~ Touma's staring out the window to look at the girl's tennis team's fluttery skirts," said Aogami in his forced Kansai accent, sending Kaowru's focus in an about-face to the classroom.

Komoe fell silent.

She had seemed to go through shock because 'that' Kamijou Touma had not been focused on the lesson. She had the look of a 12 year old who had just found out the truth about Santa Claus.

Just as that thought reached his mind, Kaworu was pierced by the hostile gazes of his classmates who wished to protect the human rights of that "child".

* * *

While it was called a supplementary lesson, they had been stuck there until the time when all students were supposed to have left school.

"What a beautiful view." Kaworu commented as he gazed at a wind turbine's three propellers, glittering in the sunset.

Any kind of nightlife was forbidden, so the last bus and train in Academy City were set to leave once the students were out of school.

Kaworu missed the last bus, so he was strolling along through the scorching shopping district that seemed to go on forever. A security robot passed by him as he did. It was also a drum on wheels and it functioned as something like a walking security camera. They were originally improved versions of robotic dogs, but children would gather around them and block their way. For that simple reason, the work robots were converted into drum container shapes.

"Ah, there you are, you bastard! Wait up… wait! You! I'm talking to you! Stop!"

He turned around to figure out what was going on.

She was a middle school-aged girl with shoulder-length brown hair that glowed a flame-red in the sunset but her face was dyed even redder. She wore a gray pleated skirt, a short sleeve blouse, and a summer sweater… At that point, he suddenly realized who she was.

"Oh, it's you again, Biri-Biri."

"Don't call me Biri Biri! I have a name! It's Misaka Mikoto! Why don't you remember it already!? You've been calling me Biri Biri since we first met!"

Since we first met…? Kaworu thought back. Oh, right.

When Touma and her first met, she was surrounded by delinquents just like the other day. As the children approached her, he had thought that they were after her wallet and stepped forward.

However, for some reason, the girl was the one that became irritated, saying, "Shut up! Don't get in the way of other people's fights!" Kamijou had of course blocked her lightning with his right hand and she had responded with, "Huh? Why didn't that work? Then what about this? Huh?" One thing had led to another, and things had ended up in their current relationship.

Misaka Mikoto... Level 5, the 3rd ranked Level 5 to be exact. There are seven Level 5s...?

That's interesting. Nevertheless, I will have to finish reciting those lines in order to drive her away in the fastest time possible. I cannot screw up the timing for that part when the magician first makes his appearance.

"What's with the distant look in your eyes?"

"The girl staring at Kamijou's face with a stunned expression is the Railgun girl from yesterday. She's so frustrated over losing a single fight that she has come back to Kamijou again and again to challenge him to rematches."

"…Who's that explanation for?"

"She's strong-willed and hates to lose, but is actually quite a lonely person and is in charge of taking care of the class pet."

"Don't tack strange things to the setting!"

The girl, Misaka Mikoto, flailed her arms around, drawing all focus on the street to her. It was not all that surprising, the completely normal summer uniform she wore was the uniform of Tokiwadai Middle School, one of the 5 most prestigious and elite schools in Academy City.

For some reason, the explosively refined girls from Tokiwadai seemed to stand apart even in a station at rush hour and would strike as a surprise for anyone to see one sitting on the floor of a train messing around with their cell phone like any other person.

"So what do you want, Biri Biri? Actually, why are you wearing your uniform during summer break? Do you have supplementary lessons?"

"Gh… Sh-Shut up."

"Were you worried about the class bunny?"

"I told you to stop with the animal stuff! Also, today I'm going to make you twitch like frog legs with electrodes attached! So, get your will and inheritance in order!"

"I don't think so."

"Why not!?"

"Because, I'm not in charge of my class' pet."

"Why you… Quit making fun of me!"

The middle school girl stomped down on the tiles of the path.

At that exact moment, a tremendous noise came from the cell phones of the people walking along the area. Additionally, the cable broadcast in the shopping district cut out and a horrible noise came from the security robot.

The crackling sound of static electricity came from the middle school girl's hair. That Level 5 girl, who used Railgun with nothing but her own body, smiled such that her canines were bared like a beast's.

"Hmph. How was that? Did that change your cowardly mind? …Mgh!"

At this point of time, Kaworu got bored and decided that he would change the order of some lines from the script.

"Shut up! You're the one that destroyed all of my electronics with that lightning yesterday! What could you possibly want after that!"

"It's your fault for pissing me off!"

"I don't even understand what's got you so mad! I've haven't laid a finger on you!"

"So do I," Misaka smiled, "If that's the case, then let's call it a draw."

"Huh? You can have the victory then, its okay," Kaworu said as he walked away from the girl.

"Gah…! W-Wait a second! Take this seriously!" shouted Mikoto as she flailed her arm.

Kaworu sighed.

"_Are you sure you want me to take this seriously_?"

"Ah…" Mikoto trailed off.

"Message, message. Error No. 100231-YF. Offensive electromagnetic waves in violation of radio laws detected. System malfunction detected. As this is possible cyber terrorism, avoid using electronics."

Kaworu and Misaka hesitantly turned around.

A drum container was on its side on the footpath spewing smoke as it spoke to itself nonsensically.

In the next instant, the security robot began sounding a high-pitched alarm.

Naturally, the both of them ran away.

* * *

After driving off the girl, Kaworu went to a gyuudon restaurant to eat a regular size gyuudon because he had never eaten one before. With only 30 yen remaining (tax included), he approached his dorm building with the sun having already set.

The place seemed deserted.

It was the first day of summer break and so most people were presumably out enjoying themselves.

The building looked like that of stereotypical one-room apartment housing. Pathways along one wall of the rectangular building had doors lined up. It being a male dorm, the metal railing lacked plastic sheets to prevent peering up at girls' skirts.

The front doors, and the balconies on the opposite sides of them, were built on the sides of the building going inwards as seen from the road. In other words, they were in the gaps between buildings.

The entrance to the building was auto-locking, but the distance between buildings was only two meters. One could easily sneak in by jumping from roof to roof as Index had that morning.

Kaworu went through the auto-locking entrance, passed by the storage room known as the dorm manager's room and got on the elevator.

With a microwave oven-like ding, the elevator stopped at the seventh floor.

He pushed aside the door that clanked as it opened and exited into the passageway. He was on the seventh floor, but there was no wind and seemed even hotter and stuffier than before because of the neighboring building being so close. But then again, it didn't really bother him one bit.

"Hmm?"

Down the straight passageway and right in front of his door, three cleaning robots were gathered. From the way they were trembling and moving back and forth, they seemed to be cleaning up quite the horrible mess.

He knew this was Index lying on the ground in a pool of blood after being slashed in the back by that Saint, Kanzaki Kaori.

He knew that she came back for the hood because it still had magical powers, hence she thought the magicians might detect it and headed there to retrieve it.

He knew that the reason for this was because she wanted to protect his existence so that he would be able to continue living here in peace.

But yet Kaworu intentionally left the hood there because he needed the magician to come here. Besides, despite her injuries from the Saint, she would be easily healed with recovery magic so the cost of meeting the magician is almost zero.

Kaworu ran over and grabbed at the cleaning robots gathered around the seriously injured Index. He failed to do so because the robots were made necessarily heavy to prevent theft on top of relatively high horsepower. In the end, he was only a human vessel. Like all humans, he had no super-strength to boast of.

In reality, the cleaning robots were only cleaning the continuously spreading stain on the floor and never actually touched Index's wound. Even so, Kaworu saw them as the nine MP Evas swarming upon a poor Unit-02, but perhaps those MP Evas should go on a diet and stop eating other Evangelions.

He was having difficulty moving aside even one of those heavy and powerful robots, much less three. While his focus was on one of them, the other two would head for the stain.

I really should be waiting for that guy to come instead of chasing the robot away to kill time. Ah, I'll go check if she's alright then.

Index said nothing.

Her pale purple lips were so still he was unsure whether she was breathing.

"Who did this to you?" Kaworu said.

"Hm? That would be us magicians."

Kaworu turned around to see a man standing there. It seemed as though he arrived from the emergency staircase next to the elevator. Yup, it's that magician all right.

His shoulder-length blond hair had been dyed red like the sunset, silver rings glittered on all ten of his fingers like brass knuckle, poisonous earrings hung on his ears, a cell phone strap could be seen sticking out of his pocket, a lit cigarette moved at the edge of his mouth, and, as if for complete, he had a barcode-like tattoo underneath his right eye.

"Hm? Hm… hm… hm. She got her pretty good." The magician looked around and the cigarette in the corner of his mouth waggled as he spoke. "I heard Kanzaki sliced her, but this is… I thought there wasn't anything to worry about because there was no blood trail…"

Kaworu glared at the magician. He wanted to express his thoughts about how indiscriminately slashing little girls is morally wrong no matter how you look at it in the best possible way.

"Hm? Hm… hm… hm? C'mon, I can't have you looking at me like that." The cigarette in the corner of the magician's mouth moved as he spoke. "It wasn't me that sliced her and I doubt Kanzaki meant to turn this into something bloody. The Walking Church is supposed to be an absolute defense, after all. Really, she shouldn't have been injured at all by that. …Honestly, what twist of fate led that to be destroyed? Unless St. George's Dragon has come again, I don't see how a Pope-class barrier could be broken."

That last bit was spoken to his self and his smile disappeared as he said it.

However, this lasted only an instant. The cigarette in the corner of his mouth twitched back up as if he had suddenly remembered to smile.

"Why? You ganged up on this little girl, chased her all over the place, and then injured her this badly. Can you really say that you're right to do so with this reality staring you in the face?"

"Like I said, Kanzaki did this, not me." The magician paused for a second. "And whether she's injured or not, we have to retrieve her."

"Retrieve her?"

The magician exhaled a puff of cigarette smoke, "Yeah, we need to retrieve her. Technically, it isn't her we need to retrieve though; it's the 103,000 grimoires she has."

More and more rhetorical questions and answers that Kaworu already know.

"I see, I see. This country isn't very religious, so I guess you don't understand," said the magician in a bored sounding voice despite the fact that he was smiling.

"The Index Librorum Prohibitorum is a list created by the church of all the evil books that will sully your soul just by reading them. Even if you were to announce that these dangerous books existed, people could still unknowingly acquire one, despite the fact that they don't know its title. Thus, she has become something of a crucible of poisonous books with 103,000 such books. Oh, but be careful. Reading just one of the books she has would make a vegetable out of someone from an irreligious nation like this."

"Enough." Kaworu smiled warmly, "Will you get out of the way or not?"

"I would prefer to call myself as Stiyl Magnus, but I guess I'll have to go with Fortis931."

"..."

"That's my magic name. Not familiar with those? It seems we magicians cannot give our true name when we use magic.

"It's an old tradition, so I don't really understand why myself."

They were 15 meters apart and slowly, Kaworu started walking towards him. It seemed as though he was welcoming an old friend, but if you had enough context, you would know that this was far from it.

"Fortis… I guess in Japanese it would mean 'the strong'. Well, the etymology doesn't really matter. What's important is that I have given that name. For us magicians, it is less a magical name when spell casting and more like…

"…a name of bloodshed, I guess."

Stiyl causally grabbed the cigarette and flicked it over the metal railing.

"A gift of pain for the giant," he chanted and with a gesture from his hand, it burst into a fiery vortex hovering in the air before directing it towards Kaworu.

Kaworu stopped to admire the streams of fire that was directed towards him much to the surprise of Stiyl. Normally, this could only mean two things. One, this guy had already accepted his fate and decided to embrace death graciously. Or two, the fire was a joke for a being like him.

Bursts of flame started scattering in all directions while a screen of smoke and flames prevented Stiyl from knowing whether his target lived to tell the tale.

"Maybe I overdid it."

With a roar, the wall of flames and smoke swirled and was blown away. Stiyl could see a single, shiny gold ethereal wing erupted from that light grey-haired boy, arched over to shield him from the flames. A soft glow radiated from his body and his smile remained warm as the glow.

He took a step back with fear written all over his face for he could not believe what he was seeing.

"Telesma?! Impossible."

Kaworu retracted the wings, "I was supposed to send you flying like a bamboo-copter with my right fist, but if you'd just kindly leave, I'll spare you the embarrassment."

While he still did not understand what Telesma was, but it seems that he could use the power to construct wings and do many other things with it.

For a brief moment when he retracted the wings, Stiyl saw that the wing spanned over a metre and the some of the feathers from the wings started to rain down from over the metal railing before it vanished midair.

Yet, Stiyl would not go down without a fight. Angel or not, he was going to defeat that arrogant boy.

Manifesting a flame sword, he sent that 2 metre long blade towards Kaworu like firing an arrow. But he only waved the blade away like chasing away a fly that had been bothering him for some time.

Kaworu took a step or two forward, "So I guess you've made your choice."

Abruptly, something floated up in the back of Stiyl Magnus's mind.

Index's Walking Church nun's habit was Pope-class and its barrier rivaled a London cathedral in its power. It was absolutely impossible to destroy it unless the legendary dragon of St. George appeared.

But Index's Walking Church had clearly been utterly destroyed since Kanzaki had sliced her.

Who had done it? And how?

It didn't take a genius to realize that it was this ethereal being who destroyed the Walking Church.

He had stopped approaching and continued to rest his gaze upon him. It seemed as though he was waiting for him to attack once more. If that's the case, then he'll give him his final trump card.

A circle of fire surrounded Stiyl as he started chanting, "One of the five great elements from which the world is constructed.

"The great flame of the beginning.

In front of him now was a small, oval-shaped flame, "It is a light of blessing that raises life and a light of judgment that punishes evil.

"It is overflowing with calm blessings and with freezing misfortune that destroys cold darkness.

That flame got bigger and bigger, "It's name is fire and its role is the sword.

"Be manifested and become the power that eats into my body!"

Instantly, a black, gigantic humanoid figure on fire burst into life from that flame.

"It's name is Innocentius, the witch hunting pope...

"Whose meaning meant, I will surely kill you."

Spreading its arm, the figure charged towards Kaworu like a bullet, but he merely waved the figure away just like how he waved that pathetic blade away.

It should have been fear, but Kaworu only saw a smile. Was this a trap?

Soon enough, the wall of flames that was surrounding him conjugated into a single point behind him and quickly expanded into that same black figure on fire again. He only had enough time to turn behind to hold up his right hand to receive the blow from the flaming cross he was holding now.

Stiyl said in a mocking tone when he saw that Kaworu did not extend his wing out, "Ran out of Telesma already?"

The cross and his right hand clashed but this time, it failed to even disappear. Kaworu was no Superman and inches by inches, it began to move even closer to his face.

Unlike Touma, he knew that the reason was the runes. In simple terms, it was like reflection. There is no point in hitting in the reflection if you cannot hit the source of the reflection.

"Ash to ash…"

Kaworu glanced behind him. From behind, a flame sword had appeared in Stiyl's right hand.

"...Dust to dust…"

Another one. A bluish-white burning flame sword extended silently from his left hand.

"…Squeamish Bloody Road!"

Swinging the two flame swords horizontally, it sliced straight through the giant flame god from left and right like a giant pair of scissors.

However, it was at this moment when Kaworu manifested his wing. Just the mere presence of the wing seemed to have erased the blades like it was never there in the first place.

"No way..."

And then, another wing started to erupt from his back, unlike its counterpart, it had a soft, aquatic glow to it. Just the mere presence of this wing also erased the figure like it was never there in the first place.

At this point of time, fear had completely taken over Stiyl's body. He could no longer hide his trembling as he witnessed the glorious presence of this pair of wings.

"The sun and the moon?!"

Meanwhile, he also heard the faint sound of paper being torn into pieces. It can't be... His runes that he had pasted throughout the building were being ripped apart one by one by some unknown force.

Kaworu turned to face the magician who looked almost like an inviting dish of jelly pudding, "Now then... let us end this."

"Ash to ash…"

But no flames appeared from his hand.

The voice got even more shaky, "...Dust to dust…"

Kaworu extended the aquatic wing towards him.

"…Squeamish Bloody Road!"

And the wing promptly smacked him onto the ground, knocking him unconscious.

Kaworu said as he saw Misaka among the crowds that had started to gather around the building, "Ikari Yui. How childish can you get," before carrying Index on her back and left the building in search of his teacher, Komoe.

* * *

**Author's note: **And this marks the first deviation of canon of the To aru universe :D

Sometimes I wonder if my style of putting in two major plots running simultaneously in one story good. Do tell me whether you think its okay, or that I should really be focusing on just one.

Nevertheless, whether its a word of praise or some constructive review. Do drop by and review (or like and/or follow if it floats your boat)!

Lastly, thanks to everyone who reviewed, liked or/and followed the story.


	4. 4: Salvation

"Such an interesting experience," was what Kaworu thought as he waltzed through the streets of Academy City while carrying an injured Index on his back towards Komoe's house.

If those passer-by didn't know better, they'd thought that a charming young man was carrying his sweet, beautiful girlfriend back home under the romantic, starry night sky. However, the various patches of bloodstains on Index's clothes would instantly change the scene to a satisfied murderer happily dancing his way to his victim's burial ground.

Pain was like a blanket of needles being dragged along through an internal roadway in his body as he continued to make his way to Komoe's house. Apparently, that blanket was a gift from the Imagine Breaker. It also left a congratulation note stating how impressive he had been for figuring out how to bypass the limitations of the Imagine Breaker, potientially distorting its original purpose.

While the Imagine Breaker will negate any supernatural power in question, but if said power was simply too overwhelming then there would be a delay in completely negating it. Hence, if Kaworu were to continuously input vast amount of Telesma, he could bypass the Imagine Breaker.

However, he realized that the pain served to remind him that his vessel can only take so much.

After climbing up the stairs, he reached the doorstep of Komoe's apartment, located on the second storey on the two storey building that looked like a old, rundown mansion from far.

* * *

It was relaxing to sit down by the table in the living room and take a puff and perhaps a bottle of beer while you're at it while reading a book. Empty beer cans and piles of cigarettes stuffed into several ashtrays littered the entire living room, who only had a low coffee table, television and a few bookshelves.

Komoe couldn't remember when she had started drinking and smoking. Probably during her university days in Kyoto where she was often discriminated against due to her size. Desperate to be properly treated as a proper adult, she begun to smoke and drink, which apparently earned her respect from her fellow peers. Thus, she continued smoking and drinking which surprisingly remained as a habit to relieve stress.

After graduating from university, she decided to enter Academy City as a teacher because she wouldn't be discriminated since everyone is special in their own way there. During a health check, the doctor remarked that her body is a piece of fantasy when she revealed that she smokes at least 19 sticks per day. At first she thought that the doctor was making fun of her. Surprisingly, when she received her health report, she saw that she was much healthier than an ordinary adult.

After Komoe finished the book, she changed into a pink jumper suit and was about to go to sleep when she heard a loud bang that nearly shook her half-empty can of beer off the table.

"The door is made especially sturdy as a defense from those newspaper sellers. Yes, yes, I'll go get the door. Please kindly wait for a moment."

"Kamijou-chan...?"

Kaworu said as he gently pushed her aside, "No time to explain."

"B-but it would be troublesome for me..."

Embarrassed at how unkempt her living room was, Komoe rushed to clear away all the cans littered about and kept all of her ashtrays into an empty space on one of her bookshelves.

Grinning sheepishly as she turned to face Kaworu, "Do you hate woman who smokes?"

Ignoring the question, Kaworu placed Index lying face down on the floor by the coffee table, completely exposing the bloody wound on her back.

Komoe's face instantly turned into one of horror when she noticed the blood on her back,"What happened?!"

Just then, a soft, white glow emanated from Index. She slowly sat up as if nothing happened to her, however, all emotions seemed to have escaped from her eyes.

Moving her pale lips, Index began to speak, "What is the current time in Japan Standard Time? Also, what is the date?"

Komoe replied with a trembling tone in her voice, "It is 8:30 PM on July 20th…"

"You did not seem to reference a clock. Is the time accurate?"

"I do not have a clock in my room, but my internal clock is accurate down to the second, so do not worry."

Glancing out from the window, Index said, "From the location of the stars and angle of the moon… the time matches the direction of Sirius with an error of 0.038. Now, to check once more: the current time in Japan Standard Time is July 20th 8:30 PM, is that correct?"

"Yes...?"

And then, capturing a single drop of blood dripping from her back with a finger, she drew a complicated looking star-shaped symbol on the now bare coffee table.

"Angel. May I request your angelic name."

Komoe looked at Kaworu with confusion, "Angel?"

"How about no."

After a brief pause, Index continued, "Very well. I will just need you to levitate above the center of the table while I will be seated at the right end and she will be seated at the left. We will initiate a healing ritual that will supply me with the necessary mana to survive."

Komoe suggested hesitantly, "Why don't I call an ambulance instead?"

"I don't understand what is an ambulance but if it is not going to supply me with the necessary mana within 15 minutes then I will no longer be capable to sustain my life." Index's voice, just like her eyes, were devoid of any emotions.

Following Index's instruction, all of them got into position.

"The centre will supply the mana needed while the left is responsible for transmission of mana to the right."

"But how do I do that?" Komoe asked.

"Sing. Follow the melody that I will also be singing.

"We will begin in 3,2,1."

Soft music started to fill the room as Index begun to sing. Komoe could hear that this was Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Ode to Joy. It grew louder and louder as Kaworu slowly transformed into a white humanoid figure with four thin translucent wings. The symbol on the table glowed brightly and surrounded the figure in a pillar of red.

Although she didn't exactly understand what was going on (Really? Kamijou Touma is actually an Angel in disguise?!) but right now, all she could do was to join in with the singing first, then ask for details later.

Kaworu's surroundings melted into a space filled with vast darkness as he felt both Index and Komoe's singing resonating deep inside his soul.

"Such beauty. Singing brings joy. It is the highest point in the culture that Lilins have created."

Somewhere in the darkness, a soft light flickered. He went closer to the light and he smiled.

_So you've found me._

_Yes, Shinji. Do you wish to leave this place and return?_

_I'm happy here. I don't wish to return ever again._

_Don't you wish to amend the pain that you believe you've inflicted on them?_

_Rei and Asuka?_

_Yes. You__ could turn back time again._

_No, that's enough. I ended up hurting them once more... again and again._

_I see. That boy?_

_Yes. He... is a much better person than me._

A sharp pain interrupted the conversation as he increased his output of Telesma to prevent the Imagine Breaker from negating all of it. If this goes on, he might just suffer from multiple organ damage from pushing too hard.

When he felt the resonation disappearing he stopped his flow of Telesma, slowly sucking the scene away back into darkness before reverting back to reality and slowly floated down on the table with his human form visible once again.

"Healing is complete and along with the replenishment of mana, I have confirmed the avoidance of any life endangerment. John's Pen mode will now go to sleep." Index said before she collapsed to the ground. A peaceful smile could be seen from her face.

* * *

"Kamijou-chan, I demand to know what is going on!" Komoe said as she put both of hands on her hips facing Kaworu who sat peacefully under the bright morning sky by the metal railing at the balcony in her bedroom. Index remained asleep like a baby on the futon behind her.

"Kamijou Touma got himself into some trouble. His misfortune once again earned him a place in another alternative universe where he must struggle to find a way to escape. I am his replacement for now. You may refer to me as Kaworu Nagisa if you wish, but Kamijou Touma is very much preferred."

"What nonsense are you talking about? You ARE Kamijou Touma, no? Same hair and face."

Sensing that being perfectly honest with the suitation would not work, Kaworu decided to approach her question in another way.

"Heaven banished me to Academy City and the Imagine Breaker is my power that I use to atone for my sins. In order to save that poor nun who was critically injured by some malicious Lilins, I have no choice but to reveal my true self."

"... Are you being intentionally sarcastic on purpose?"

Kaworu got up from the railing and kneeling down as if he was proposing to her, he clasped both of her hands with his cold hands, eyes staring deep into Komoe's eyes, "If you were a complete stranger, I wouldn't mind involving you, but I owe you a favour, so I don't want to involve you."

Shocked at how romantic Kaworu seemed all of a sudden, she took a quick step back and her face flushed a bright red, "S-saying things like that and trying to cover everything up doesn't mean I will forgive you.

"I'll go to the supermarket and get some food for breakfast. Meanwhile you should think about how you'd properly explain the situation to me."

Before Komoe closed the door and left the room, she added, "Sometimes when I go shopping, I tend to forget things, so if I forget, do remember to remind me."

"Touma..."

Index sat up on her bed with a slightly dazed look. She tried her best to escape from that woman who discovered her while making her way back to Touma's apartment. Once again, she jumped from rooftops to rooftops but that woman was agile as she kept up with her. Finally, she felt a searing pain in her back, but before she could collaspe, she must first retrieve the hood in his apartment. Sadly, when she reached the doorstep, her body gave out, causing her to slip into unconsciousness.

"So you're finally awake."

"Who exactly are you?"

"I am from an alternate universe."

"Then why are you here?"

"Somebody did summon me using the Lance of Longinus after all. But that's a long story."

"Tell me."

"Beyond comprehension for mere Lilins."

Index's cheeks puffed up like a small child being looked down upon, "Tell me."

"Why do you want to know so much?"

"Because I'm curious!"

"Why are you so curious?"

Unable to stand this anymore, Index did what she did best when she was upset. Biting.

"Such misfortune...?"

* * *

"Bathtime~ Bathtime~" Index sang happily while she skipped along together with Kaworu holding a wash basin with both hands towards the bath house.

After Komoe came back from her shopping, it really seemed as though she really did forget about everything and allowed both Index and Kaworu stay in her house with no conditions attached. Unfortunately, her house lacked anything even close to a bath, and so the both of them had to head down to a nearby bath house at night.

"Touma, Touma," said Index as she nudged at his arm lightly.

"Do you like the name Touma? You've been calling out my name for about 158 times already."

"207 times," Index corrected, "I just like calling your name for no reason." Her expression was like that of a child going to an amusement park for the first time.

"There must be a reason why. So why?"

"You're annoying for an Angel."

"I'm just curious."

Index realised that Kaworu wasn't carrying his own wash basin, so why was he heading to the bath house also.

"Where's your basin? How are you going to bath without it?"

"Aren't we supposed to share the basin?"

Index stopped to put down her wash basin and folded her arms with a hurt expression on her face, slightly biting her lower lips, much to Kaworu's surprise. Was this an offensive question to that Lilin?

"Touma. So you are that sort of person."

"...?"

"I hate you."

For the second time today, he had been bitten by Index, this time on the head.

"Honestly, what is wrong with bathing together?" Kaworu wondered as he watched Index headed on to the public bath alone.

After some time, he found it strange that there was no people in the area. Checking the time displayed on a department store's electronic billboard, it was exactly 8 PM. It would still be some time before most people would be asleep, and yet, there was nobody else but him.

And then he smiled, Kanzaki Kaori was 2 days earlier than expected.

After coming to a major road with three lanes in each direction, he waited for her to make an appearance.

Less than a moment later, he heard her voice like a sword colliding into his A.T field, "Stiyl carved the Opila rune for a people clearing field and so all of the people around this area have had their focuses averted so that they avoid approaching here for whatever reason. Most are likely inside the buildings, so worry not."

Turning behind, Kaworu saw a girl wearing a T-shirt and jeans with a leg boldly cut off and a two meter plus Japanese sword with its blade hidden inside a black scabbard hanging from her waist.

"My name is Kanzaki Kaori, and I'd like to take the girl into our care without any trouble."

"Why?" Kaworu asked curiously. Of course he knew that she was here to take away Index due to her perfect memory taking up 85% of her brain capacity after memorizing 103,000 grimoires, causing her to die if the remaining 15% of her memories isn't erased in one year intervals.

What he really wanted to know was why did she decide to face an angelic being like him alone just to take the girl back. Did that battle with Stiyl not prove how much power he possesses simply from manifesting only two of his wings alone.

Yet her voice remained calm as if this was a casual conversation, "I will repeat myself, I'd like to take the girl into our care without any trouble."

"Why do you choose to ignore my question?" Kaworu's voice was genuinely curious without a single trace of fear nor annoyance.

"I will repeat myself again, I'd like to take the girl into our care without much trouble."

"Why are you repeating yourself when you haven't answered my question yet?"

The blade of a wind turbine just a few meters behind Kaworu instantly got sliced into half like butter and it fell heavily to the ground, causing light tremors around the area.

While it seemed as though Kaori sliced the blade with only her mind, but this was simply because she had drawn her blade faster than the human eye could perceive.

"I believe I don't have to repeat myself anymore."

"I am an Angel and I possess much more power than you, even so, you choose to confront me alone. Why?"

"Just because you possess Telesma doesn't automatically makes you more powerful than me.

"Nanasen."

Seven mysterious wind blades appeared out of nowhere, slicing the asphalt, streetlights and the trees lining the area at set intervals as it flew past them. Several fist-sized pieces of asphalt was sent flying towards Kaworu, yet it seemed as though it was meant to intentionally miss him by only mere inches. A soft click could be heard as the blade returned to its scabbard.

Perhaps it was foolish of her to go easy on a being who possesses Telesma; would that honestly scare it away?

Kaworu remained unperturbed, even slightly curious to why it had missed him.

"Lilins are often afraid of others who are stronger than them. But you are showing mercy to someone stronger than you. Why?"

"Up till now, you keep claiming that you are stronger than me. Why don't you show me how much stronger are you."

"If you don't erase her memory in one year intervals, she will die. Why won't you tell me this was the reason why."

Kaori clutched her sword, "How did you know?" Her voice that was once calm became hesitant and nervous, as if she had finally met her idol for the first time and doubting that this was real. In some ways, she really did have this feeling. Could an Angel really be the solution to save Index without erasing her memories?

"To trust means to open up your heart. It leaves you vulnerable in so many ways. I see."

As her gaze met his, she realized how hypnotic it was, seemingly promising anything that you desire, so long as you submit to that gaze. Sensing that this could be a hypnosis spell, Kaori quickly jerked her head to snap out of it.

"I will ask as many times as it takes. I'd like to take the girl into our care without much trouble."

"Salvare000. Be the salvation of those who cannot be saved."

A jolt of shock ran down her spine as she took a step backwards now, clutching her sword even tighter. Her magic name that she no longer wish to reveal to anyone causally rolled off his tongue as if it was just a convenient fact for whatever he was up to.

"Erasing her memories and then decide to abandon her. When the time comes, you'll just retrieve her and erase her memories again, and then... Is this what you call salvation of those who cannot be saved? Really? I didn't know."

Those were not the words of a sarcastic protagonist trying to talk sense into her, rather, it was like a genuine question asked by a child because he was curious and eager to learn something new.

Kaori started to tremble, clutching her blade even tightly than before, she glared furiously at him, "Shut up. You know nothing at all."

"That's because you wouldn't tell me anything. Why are you so angry? You can't blame me if I know nothing at all."

"Shut up. SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

Leaping straight towards Kaworu like a bullet, she sent the blunt end of the scabbard plunging through his stomach and finishing with a side kick that sent him tumbling to the ground at an angle.

Stepping on his stomach, she began stabbing his right arm with the blunt end like a sewing machine. On hindsight, that would be foolish for that reckless dash left her completely open to any attacks that he might try. She had let her emotions got the better of her.

"We tried! We tried everything we could! We spent spring trying, we spent summer trying, we spent fall trying, and we spent winter trying! We promised to make memories that she would never forget and we made journals and photo albums!" The expression on her face made it seem like she would shed tears of blood.

The blunt blows crushed his arm again and again, "…But none of them worked," and her hand stopped, resting the blunt end on her arm.

"Even when we showed her the journals and the photo albums, she just apologized. No matter what we did and no matter how many times we tried, even if we remade the memories from scratch, nothing worked. Everything returned to zero whether you were family, her friend, or her lover."

She released her foot and scabbard from him and took a few steps back, but she trembled so much that it seemed she could not take another step. "We… could stand it no longer. We could not bear to see that smile of hers any longer."

Kaworu stood up, his gentle smile remained intact with no sign of pain even though she had assaulted him moments ago, "You choose to lessen the pain as much as possible rather than give her the cruel fortune of knowing you. If she never had the precious memories she had to lose, then the shock of losing her memories would lessen. But not once did you take her feelings into account, how selfish."

"…Shut… up."

"If you were a little stronger."

Her voice was pained and quiet, "I said shut up..."

"But you're weak. You cannot do anything."

Kaori clutched the hilt of her sword with her other hand so hard until her knuckles turned white, tears beginning to form at the corners of her eyes.

"WHY CAN'T YOU SHUT THE HELL UP."

She drew her blade from the scabbard, slashing him with one single strike from a distance only to see a translucent blue wing that glowed warmly in the night arched over, shielding him from that strike.

He was still smiling as he retracted the wings. This was a smile of mockery. Dropping her knees to the ground, Kaori cursed herself for being that useless. She had not lost the battle yet, but she could not take it anymore. It felt as though her mind had been utterly violated just by looking at his persistent, gentle eyes.

To her surprise, he walked up to her.

"Injure me."

Kaori looked up in shock. What nonsense is he uttering now.

"Injure me."

Using her scabbard as a support, she stood up, "What?"

"If you don't injure me, she might just run away again."

"...?"

"Then I'll injure you then."

Manifesting the same wing, he levitated 4 meters up into the air with the moon on his back. From that wing, he propelled crystal shards like a rocket towards Kaori which she swiftly sliced it into pieces.

"Archangel...? Impossible. Their very existence itself could distort the world, but nothing strange had happened."

While he did possess Telesma, Kaori merely thought of him as a powerful being. Even though he claimed that he was an Angel, she beileved that this was a tactic used to scare her away. However, what she was seeing now seemed to prove her wrong.

Looking at him now, she saw that the smile was gone. Is this what he is really capable of?

Soon, he began to manifest three other wings. The blue and the golden wing were a pair while a white and a black wing were another pair. Under the pale moonlight, it seemed as though he was a god that descended into Academy City.

Instead of crystal shards, he sent sword blades flying towards Kaori which she deflected it with ease and it vanished as soon as it landed on the ground like a virtual simulation falling apart.

Before she could even think, more sword blades went coming her way. As if that was not enough, the crystal shards were back together with the blades.

This can't go on. Eventually, this would tire her and this could only mean one thing. Death.

After a few minutes of slashing, she noticed that one of his wings had disintegrated and he seemed to be losing his balance. Lesser and lesser shards and blades rained down upon her as the seconds past. A sign of weakness. Good. Perhaps the being would tire himself out before her.

Eventually, all of his wings disintegrated and Kaworu crashed towards the ground. His face was drenched in blood that flowed freely from his eyes and nose as he lay on the ground unconscious.

She closed her eyes for a moment. And then, she decided that this was enough.

* * *

"Touma?" Index said as she stared down at Kaworu as he lay in a futon.

Back in Komoe's bedroom, what a relief. Kaworu thought. He had given her the choice to incapacitate him so that he would be the burden that would prevent Index from running away. Yet, she refused to do so, forcing him to increase his output of Telesma to the point where it would nearly kill him. Fortunately, Kaori had spared his life while he lay unconscious, otherwise he would no longer be able to return anymore since Kamijou Touma's existence is the core that bounds him to this universe.

Kaworu smoothly got up as if nothing had happened to him, "I'm perfectly fine. Hmm.. the sun is up. I've been out all night I suppose."

"It wasn't all night," replied Index, "It's been three days."

"..."

Index's voice grew soft, "Hey... I'm sorry."

"For?"

"I didn't know that you were fighting other magicians for my sake," she said as the tears started to well up in her eyes, "I'm sorry that I got you into this.

"Komoe said you collapsed in the middle of the road. She was the one that carried you back to the apartment. I couldn't do anything at all… I couldn't save you, Touma."

Kaworu paused to look at her thoughtfully, and then he decided to smile, "I'm your guardian angel, it is my duty to protect you."

"...! I-I'll get some porridge!" Index's face flushed a bright red as she rushed to the kitchen. Her heart started to beat wildly. So charming all of a sudden, that idiot. If he wanted to cheer me up, the least he could do is to say that it's okay instead of saying such stupid things, she thought as she scooped porridge into a bright blue bowl from a pot.

* * *

"Is that how you use a chopstick?" Kaworu asked as he watched Index carrying a bowl of porridge while holding a chopstick with her right fist.

She started to stir the porridge with the chopsticks, "I think so."

Just then, a knock on the door drew her attention.

"Could this be Komoe?" Index said.

However, a voice came from the other side of the door, "Kamijou-chan, I'm not sure what's going on, but it seems we have visitors." It seems that Komoe had spotted whoever had knocked on the door as she returned from wherever she had been.

The door clicked open and standing behind Komoe was Stiyl and Kaori.

"Heh. It looks like we won't have to worry about you escaping with those injuries," Stiyl said while he lit a cigarette with a small flame on his finger.

Kaworu turned to look at Kaori and smiled.

"_If you don't injure me, she might just run away again."_

A brief moment of shock ran through her face. He had seen through their plan of burdening Index with an injured person. They wanted her to refuse to give up on him so that he would function as a convenient shackle. But why would he want to be that burden? Everything he said yesterday... was just reverse psychology? Kaori thought. Apparently it failed spectacularly, otherwise he wouldn't have to bluntly request her to injure him.

"Leave, magicians."

Index stood between the magicians and Kaworu holding the bowl of porridge, ready to throw it at any moment as a diversion.

It was all going exactly as they had planned... or maybe that sliver haired boy known as Kamijou Touma's plan. Kaori had an uneasy feeling about this guy. It seemed as though he knew everything about them, however they knew nothing about him except his name and that he's a Level 0 ESPer.

While the pathways are different between a normal person and an ESPer, rendering an ESPer being unable to use any form of magic, but its hard to say for an ESPer who possesses Telesma. After all, it is a different form of mana.

"Leave! Please… I'll go wherever you want and I'll do whatever you want. Just please, I beg of you…

"Just don't hurt Touma anymore."

Kaori glared furiously at Kaworu just for a brief moment. Hurt him? Nobody could hurt him unless he himself decide to get hurt. So powerful that he had to literally beg her to injure him. Every word that he said 3 days ago on a cold night by the roadway was meant to anger her so that she would overpower him and injure him. However, he ended up in tormenting her so much that she dropped her knees to the ground.

"The time limit will come in another 12 hours and 38 minutes," announced Stiyl, "You know so much about us, surely you understand what we meant by time limit."

The both of them said nothing more and merely left the room.

"If I make a deal with them…" Kaworu looked at Index's face covered with tears as she spoke, "I can keep your life from being destroyed anymore, Touma. I won't let them intrude on your life anymore, so don't worry."

He wiped a tear from her face and smiled reassuringly that everything would be alright.

_This time, I will surely make you happy, Ikari Shinji._

* * *

Night came and Index was asleep on the futon. It seemed that Komoe had headed for the public bath leaving the two of them alone in the room. That was fine, Kaworu thought. No causalities there.

He stood by the black rotary phone in Komoe's room that could have been called an antique. Kaori would call soon enough and he didn't want to miss that important call.

Moments later, the phone started to ring and Kaworu picked it up immediately.

"It's me. You can tell who I am, right?"

"Kaori," he preempted her, "I'll be waiting."

And then he put down the phone. Strangely enough, everything seemed to be happening 2 days earlier than expected. Something is wrong, but perhaps it might be the distortion from the vast amount of Telesma that he has been using recently from fighting those magicians. The Imagine Breaker felt like a curse in RPG games, twice the mana spent to cast a spell with only half the damage. For now, his vessel has been damaged so much by the vast amount of Telesma that he forcibly used to bypass the Imagine Breaker that he could only rely on the right hand of misfortune that belonged to Kamijou Touma.

Kaworu slipped his right thumb and forefinger between those lips and forced her mouth open. Just a little more, he thought, and her curse would be removed. The oddly warm saliva wrapped around his fingers but he didn't seem to notice as he continued to press forward to jab at the back of her throat.

Finally, he felt a small lump that seemed like a symbol. And then, he touched it.

A slight shock grazed his right hand like a blade running through his skin and at the same time, he was forcefully blown backwards.

Floating up into the air like a limp puppet being taken out from toy box, Index turned to look at Kaworu with glowing blood red magical circles in her eyes. At that moment, she truly looked like a monster awakened from the darkness of a innocent little child.

However, Kaworu seemed to be admiring a strange beauty that only he could see from that monster who now floated about a few meters away from him.

"Warning: Chapter 3, Verse 2. All barriers for Index Librorum Prohibitorum's collar from first to third have been breached. Preparing to regenerate… failed. The collar cannot self-regenerate. Switching priorities to the elimination of the intruder in order to protect the 103,000 archived grimoires.

"Using the 103,000 archived grimoires to determine the magic spell used to damage the barrier… failed. The specified magic cannot be determined. Putting together an anti-intruder local weapon to expose the composition of the spell." Index tilted her head like a corpse puppet. "The magic expected to be most effective on the specific intruder has been formulated. Proceeding to activate the special magic: St. George's Sanctuary to destroy the intruder."

The two magic circles in her eyes grew larger and larger, spanning about two meters across in front of her, With a tremendous noise, it seemed as though space itself had cracked, seemingly forming black special cracks spread out in every directions of a window, separating Index from anyone else in the room.

A pillar of light burst out from the cracks like a giant laser beam, forcing Kaworu to hold his right hand up instead of his wings to shield himself, scattering the light in all directions.

Just then, he heard the noise of the door opening and Stiyl and Kaori charged in.

Stiyl opened his mouth with shock, "She can use magic?"

Kaori looked at the god that basked in the pale moonlight 3 days ago now struggling against a single beam with his right hand. At that moment to her, he looked like an ordinary boy trying to fight against the monster that was Index.

"Isn't it obvious," Kaworu briefly glanced behind, " That the church was lying. Oh, and that whole thing about Index having to have her memories erased every year? That was another lie. The church was the one limiting her, so if I destroy this thing, you won't have to erase her memories anymore."

The power behind the pillar of light nightmarishly doubled and slowly but surely, Kaworu slid backwards. He grabbed his right wrist with his empty left hand to steady himself but he almost had no strength to continue pushing the beam backwards. Abruptly, it stopped.

"St. George's Sanctuary is showing no effect against the intruder. Switching to another spell and continuing destruction of the intruder in order to protect the collar."

And then the same beam shot through the cracks again. Kaworu could feel his right wrist nearly snapping apart from the pressure of that new spell.

The two magicians continued to stare blankly at Index who stood beyond the cracks.

"…"

"If you want to save Index from losing her memories ever again. Do something."

"…Salavare000."

Seven wires swiftly tore through the fragile tatami mat below Index's feet. Tilting the mat vertically using the wires, Kaori managed to make Index fall backwards. The magic circles seemed to be linked to her eyes for it moved together with her line of vision, causing the pillar of light that was supposed to be aimed at Kaworu to miss its target considerably.

As if it were a giant light saber being swung around, the pillar of light sliced through the wall and ceiling of the apartment. It even sliced through the pitch black clouds floating in the night sky. In fact, it could have even sliced through a satellite outside the atmosphere.

Dozen of feathers of light came floating down like snow from the portions that had been destroyed.

"Those are the same as Dragon Breath, the strike of the legendary dragon of St. George," Kaori stated, she never really believed that it would pose any threat to him. However, she did not realize that no matter how powerful Kaworu was, his vessel is still human after all.

He started to rush towards Index as she lay collapsed on the ground but before he could, she got up once again like a floating puppet, directing the beam once more at him.

For an instant, Stiyl gritted his teeth so hard it seemed they would crack. Perhaps defeating Index would really save her from losing her memories.

"…Fortis931."

Tens of thousands of cards flew from within his pitch black clothes. Cards carved with flame runes spiraled around like a typhoon and in no time at all had covered the walls, ceiling, and floor without gap.

Taking the cue, Kaworu manifested four of his wings and in that instant, a large explosion shook the room, crashing the pillar of light as if an invisible sledgehammer did it. For a brief moment, both Stiyl and Kaori saw the wings disintegrating into pieces moments after it destroyed the pillar of light.

Kaori noticed a pained expression on his face as he struggled to move towards Index who stood there, seemingly shocked at such a power. Just 3 days ago, he was a god that basked in the pale moonlight. Now, he looked like a boy who wanted to save her with all his power.

From the cracks, the pillar of light started to pour out once again towards Kaworu who clearly had no more strength to defend against it. Even so, he continued to move forward.

"Innocentius!"

A giant flame took on the form of a person and then spread out its arms to act as a shield for Kaworu against the pillar of light.

Just a few more steps, and she'll be okay. Kaworu thought as he inched slowly towards her.

"Warning: Chapter 6, Verse 13. New enemy confirmed. Changing combat considerations. Beginning scan of the battlefield… done. Focusing on the destruction of the most difficult enemy, Kamijou Touma."

Index swung her head around, pillar of light and all.

However, Innocentius moved to protect Kaworu at the same time. The light and flames continued to eat into each other in an extended conflict of destruction and regeneration.

"Warning: Chapter 22, Verse 1. Analysis of the flame magic spell has succeeded. It is confirmed to be a distorted Christian motif described with runes. Adding in anti-Christian spells… Spell 1, Spell 2, Spell 3. Twelve seconds until the complete activation of the spell named Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani."

The pillar of light's color turned from pure white to crimson and Innocentius's regeneration speed visibly slowed as it pushed forward.

Kaworu knew that he was too weak to even lift his right hand, but so long as that right hand manages to come into contact with Index, it would be fine. He had no choice but to use his Telesma for the last time.

Propelling himself like a rocket, he tore through the air and through that invisible cracked window. Mustering whatever strength left, he swung his right hand down from above towards her.

The pillar of light and magic circles disappeared, and it was almost as if the cracks that had been running all across the room had been erased with an eraser. The both of them fell to the ground with Kaworu on top of Index. It seemed as though he wanted to protect her body from the falling feather of light.

"…Warning: Final… Chapter, Verse Zero…. The collar has received fatal… damage… Regeneration… impossible… gone."

At that moment, one of the feathers of light fell down on Kaworu's head.

Even so, he remained smiling because he won. And with that, his sister from the other side would see to it that his plan would succeed eventually.

On that very night, Kaworu Nagisa "died".

* * *

"Ikari Gendo, just how much time and money have you wasted by giving that Eva unit like a toy to your son," a old man who wore a visor said as he sat across him at a long table in a dark room. He was Keel Lorenz, the head committee of the Human Instrumentality Committee and he didn't look pleased at what Gendo did. To either sides sat 2 other representives, making up the 5 members of the committee. However, they were simply mere holo-images.

"We invested a lot of resources into your project, Gendo," said the representative of America, "not to see it being given away like some toy."

"Besides that, the costs for repairing Eva Unit 01 is simply too staggering," added the representative of Russia.

Keel stood up and slammed a fist on the table, "Your priority should be the Human Instrumentality Project!"

The remaining four members nodded their head in agreement.

"In any case, we will not allow any delay in the schedule of that project. Don't forget, Gendo, this is humanity's last hope and salvation. This is not a game.

"The rest of the meeting does not concern you. Your appearance was... appreciated."

Four holo-images on either side of the tables faded away.

"Ikari, I must remind you that there is no turning back."

Finally, the last holo-image also faded away.

"Oh yes, there is really no turning back for me. And I certainly will not allow any delay in _my _project."

Gendo smiled. Everything was going according to his plan. However, there was something that bugged him. Perhaps it's that father to son connection thing, but the Shinji standing before him felt like an imposter who succeeded in replacing the real Ikari Shinji. Or maybe it was because he never really took the time to understand him.

He felt a twinge of regret at that thought, but he quickly dispatched of it with an imaginary AK-47.

Always look at the bigger picture, do not let such a thought distract you from your main goal! Gendo thought as he slowly got up from his chair and left the room.

He still had much work to do. And much plans to be perfected.

* * *

Author's Note: Just in case you get confused, I assumed that Telesma in its purest form (which is what Kaworu possess inside) cannot be negated as it is a natural phenomenon, however, the unnatural phenomenon comes when it is converted into other forms, such as manifesting a wing for example.

Simply put, any attempt to use Telesma to interact with reality is considered unnatural and will be negated by the Imagine Breaker, but it cannot negate the source of Telesma itself.

Phew, hope my explanation is clear enough. I had problems actually trying to keep Kaworu in-character, hope I did a good job with that. And Index in some ways? I don't think I made her that OOC though, but if there is, do point it out to me.

Thank you everyone for reviewing as always, and if you liked the story... you can either leave a review or fav or like :D

If you have constructive criticism, I demand that you leave a review here!

Do you know that sometimes, other readers might just benefit from your constructive criticism too. (but it is quite sad that they never let you know)

Anyway, that's all from me.

EDITED: 25/03/2013

I changed a few things here and there... maybe one major change but that's about it.


	5. 5: Cataclysm

"Shinji, your father has decided that you'll be living with me from now onwards, so don't worry about living alone okay?" Misato smiled as Touma and her were now walking about the corridor of a building to her apartment.

Touma sighed, "I'm quite sure I'll be fine living alone."

Sometimes he wondered if that Ikari Gendo was "his" real father. Maybe Shinji was his illegitimate son and he had no choice but to call him back to pilot that robot.

After he had pointed out that his hairstyle is different from the real Shinji Ikari, Misato still insisted that he is Shinji. Same hair and the same face. Touma thought. Honestly, how in the world can someone else have the EXACT same hairstyle and face as me. No one in their right mind would go for a purple, spiky look.

Of course its possible. Why would it not be possible.

As long as its Kamijou Touma, even the water that he drinks might just suddenly turn into chilli liquid instead. Which actually happened when a certain Level 4 Teleporter known as Shirai Kuroko decided to play a prank on him for chasing her beloved onee-sama.

Such misfortune.

With a swipe of a card by Misato on a scanner beside a metallic door in front of the both of them now, it effortlessly slid away.

"All right, we're here."

Carrying only a small bag of grocery, she stepped into her house, leaving an unfortunate Touma who had been hugging a large plastic bag with various packets of ready-made food and drinks.

"Hurry up and enter already."

"I'm sorry to dis-"

Greeting Touma was a rubbish field that had a sofa, TV, kitchen and a dining table. Although the living room itself is twice as large as Komoe's apartment, but the magnitude of rubbish as compared to her can be said to be undefined.

He wondered if the rubbish itself was the misfortune or the owner of the house.

Misato said while she changed into some causal clothing in her equally messy bedroom with cans of beer and car magazines strewn about, "Ah, this place might just be little messy, so just bear with it. Anyway, could you put the food in the fridge?"

Opening the first compartment of the fridge, Touma saw a lone pack of ice with its content turned into water.

Opening the second compartment of the fridge, Touma saw some snacks lying about.

Opening the last compartment of the fridge, Touma saw cans and cans of beer properly lined up like soldiers preparing for a war.

Just what sort of life could that Misato be leading. Probably not as bad as Komoe since she didn't seem like a chain smoker to me. Touma thought while he put the food into the first and second compartment.

Komoe... its been awhile since they both met each other. After World War III ended, there had been so many things happening that he almost stopped attending school all together.

I wonder how's life back in Academy City... That BiriBiri and Index could be struggling to search for him, but how can you search for somebody who is already in another universe.

It's okay. No matter how unfortunate I am, I will find a way to return to my universe.

* * *

Somehow, Touma had managed to clear away all the junk from the dining table while Misato heated up the food for dinner.

Spread out on the table was a feast of ready-made ranging from crabstick omelettes to curry noodles and french fries. Not forgetting a couple cans of beers as Misato eagerly grabbed one and started drinking.

"That's what I call enjoying life!"

"Sure..." Touma used his chopsticks and munched down on his bowl of noodles. It has been almost a day since he had eaten and the warm, satisfying feeling made his stomach churn about with contentment.

"Thank goodness the blackout last night only affected my pack of ice," Misato said after she gulped down her can of beer.

"Blackout...?"

Misato leaned closer towards Touma from across the table, "I'm not supposed to tell anyone but the overwhelming electricity that powered your Eva caused a massive city-wide blackout.

"You defeated the Angel, that's all I can say."

Although Touma sensed that Misato was hiding something, but he decided not to pursue it. Ignorance can be blessing at times. Especially when that memory after he got knocked out only consisted of maniacal laughter and more maniacal laugher.

In an attempt to divert the topic, she said while pointing to the door, "Ah, why don't you take a bath. Bathing refreshes and cleanses the soul."

Slurping the last of his noodles, "Fine, fine," he got up and went to the bathroom.

* * *

As Touma took off his clothes, he started to sing a little to cheer himself up, "The sky is so dark but my life remains as bright as eve-."

Suddenly, he detected a strong presence in the bathroom. However, there seemed to be no one else but him.

Strange. Touma thought. I'm quite sure there was something...

"AHH!"

Instinctively, he rushed out of the bathroom.

"THERE'S A FREAKING ALIEN INSIDE! WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS."

Misato, who sat in her chair at the dining table looked curiously at him. Soon after, a penguin appeared from the bathroom and waddled towards a strange contraption that Touma initally thought was another fridge. To his surprise, the penguin actually lifted his arm and slightly extended its claw to activate the unlocking mechanism, revealing a miniature living room inside.

"His name is Pen-Pen. He's your other roommate.

"Oh, and why don't you cover up first."

Touma looked down. At this point of time, he believed that this was more of karma rather than a product of his own misfortune. Nevertheless, he still only had one thing to say.

"Such misfortune."

Touma shyly slid back into the bathroom while making sure that his important parts were being covered properly by his hands.

Misato sighed. "It's not that I wanted to hide things from you, but if I tell you what really happened during that night, would you believe it?"

And her thoughts drifted back to that very night...

* * *

"Unit-01 is down!"

"Contact with the pilot is lost. The controls are breaking up."

Everyone in the command center was in a rush trying to salvage the situation after Eva Unit-01 suffered a critical damage to its cranium, knocking the pliot unconscious.

"We've got no choice," Misato yelled, "Abort the mission! Eject the pliot now!"

"WE CAN'T! IT'S COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL!"

"What did you say?!"

Misato stared at the Eva who remained lying on the side of the building from a large video screen that covered the entire wall. Could this be the end of Shinji...? No, he'll live somehow! Misato prayed for his safety from the bottom of her heart.

And then, the right eye of the Eva suddenly lit up.

"The Eva has reactivated."

"Berserker." Ritsuko swore under her breath.

Slowly, it stood up and lifted his head with a sharp glint in its remaining eye.

Bursting forward, it attempted to punch through the core of the Angel with its remaining fist.

"It's an A.T Field!" A tomboyish girl who sat at the interface of one of the command decks said.

"He can't get through the Angel so long as the field's up!" Misato said.

True to their words, the Eva slammed its fist repeatedly at the octagonal barrier to no avail. When that didn't work, it raised a leg at an oblique angle around 45 degrees and whammed it hard against it. Yet, the barrier that separated the Eva 6 meters away from the Angel remained still. It was like kicking a large concrete wall and only the foot, in its vailiant attempt to break the wall, would throb in pain.

An eerie flash of light flickered in the hollow depths of the empty eyes of the small bird-like mask that was the Angel's face and a giant light enveloped the Eva, melting the amour into an indistinguishable mass of purple.

"Damage of the amour at 75%."

"It seems as though it didn't go quite as planned," Fuyutsuki said as he stood beside Gendo at the top most platform of the command center, where the both of them had a bird's eye view of the happenings in the center.

Gendo remained slient with a light smile on his face. Soon, you'll see, he thought.

"Electricity output of the Eva... is increasing!" The tomboyish girl urgently reported to Ritsuko.

"Maya, requesting status of the Eva right now."

"10 million volts... no, 30 million volts... 100 million volts!

Ritsuko quickly took an empty seat beside Maya and pulled out a real-time graph on the electricity output of the Eva. While the amount of volts was important, but like what all physicists would say, it's the ampere that matters. And the amount of ampere was... 1000 A. She threw herself back at the chair with horror. 100 million kilowatts per second.

"If this goes on... No wait, how can this be!"

A quick scan on the status report on the Eva revealed that it was only using a small amount of its internal power source. However, the cable connected to it seemed to be conducting large amount of electricity down into the power supply.

Meanwhile, the Eva itself had transformed into a glowing purple monster with sparks of electricity dancing about. It tore a piece of the amour that now looked like a grotesque mass of melted purple from its right arm off and flicked it up into the air like an arcade coin.

"300 million volts... 400 million volts... 750 million volts... 1 billion volt!"

"If this goes on, the entire Tokyo-3 will be destroyed when the power buildings gets overloaded from the massive continuous surge of electricity."

Ritsuko swerved her chair towards Maya, "Disconnect the Eva from the main power source!"

"I can't, the signal's not working."

"Contact with pilot successfully reestablished," said a man who also was at the interface of the command deck a few seats away from Maya.

The voice had a maniacal edge to it; also ragged but distinctively Touma's voice, "Do you know what a Railgun is?"

"It is something that you fire at three times the speed of sound.

"AT 1 BILLION VOLT!"

"It can't be..." Ritsuko realized that the power source was the Eva itself, the projectile was that piece of purple amour and he plans to accelerate the projectile at three times the speed of sound to penetrate the A.T field.

After the piece of amour rotated in the air for a few seconds, it landed back onto the Eva's thumb. With another flick, it was launched towards the core like a purple meteorite sliently soaring through space, piercing the A.T field like a flimsy piece of paper through the core.

Misato swore that the Eva was smiling confidently at the exact moment when it launched the projectile.

The Angel dropped to the ground and exploded violently, leaving a large, red cross that stood vertically burning in the air like an afterimage.

Fortunately, the electrical output of the Eva dropped to zero soon after. Whatever left of the Eva looked like a beautiful ice sculpture left in a hot summer day after a few minutes. The rays of the breaking dawn bathed the monstrous mass that was the Eva Unit-01 in a warm orange light.

"A railgun. That was one of her biggest childhood fantasy." Fuyutsuki said.

Gendo remained unmoved on the surface, yet he was smiling inside, "If she hadn't chose the frog, I suppose we wouldn't have met her at all."

* * *

Meanwhile, from the window of a cage from its command room, both Gendo and Ritsuko looked at the giant, red four eyed robot that stood there emotionless. While a cage might bring about an image of an enclosure made of mesh, bars and wire, but it was merely a hollow space painted with a tint of orange that contained the robot.

"How are the repairs for Unit 00 and 01 going?" Gendo asked.

"Unit 00 will be finished in about a few days time. Unit 01... The circuit is completely fried. Although this is to be expected when the efficiency of its internal power source increased by 5000%."

"I see."

"What exactly is Eva Unit-01?" Ritsuko's voice grew sharper, "The reason why the amour suffered a staggering 75% damage from one single shot from the Angel was because it didn't deploy an A.T field at all. In fact, the only reason why it fired a Railgun was because it cannot deploy one to corrode the Angel's field.

"Now tell me, what exactly is Eva Unit-01."

Gendo arched an eyebrow as if to question her sanity, "You, of all people should know that whether be it Unit-01," glancing briefly at the giant red robot, "or Unit-02, they are the same."

"Then tell me why is it that Unit-01 cannot deploy an A.T field."

"It didn't," he corrected, "Why don't you ask her yourself."

Ritsuko smiled knowingly, "If she was able to devise some method of communication, I would."

Gendo remained silent and turned back to observe Unit-02. Something felt wrong on a lot of levels. Can Unit-01 truly be considered to have went berserk if the pliot remained conscious. And the fact that the Eva had to rely on a railgun to penetrate an A.T field probably meant that it could not deploy its own field to neutralize it for some reasons.

However, he knew that the Eva did went berserk but simply in a more intelligent way. After all, firing a railgun takes a lot more than increasing raw power at impossible levels. Controlling parallel electrical currents going in opposite directions with such perfection such that they are traveling along the same length and are able to stay on their initial positions isn't as easy as people think it would be.

But the pliot was conscious. Or seemed to be. Possessed perhaps. That would be the logicial explanation.

He looked into the four narrow, yellow eyes of the robot that almost looked like slits. More observations will be needed. He thought. Especially on the right hand of Unit-01.

* * *

"Oh, Kaji. Thanks for the flowers!" A girl with red hair tied into two ponytails blushed almost as red as her hair while she shyly accepted the flower from the dashing young man who seemed gentlemanly enough to give her flowers as soon as she got off from her plane and into the large, spacious air conditioned hallway of the airport of Tokyo-3.

He smiled, "Always a pleasure, my lovely Asuka."

While Kaji had been her guardian back in Germany, but since he had some urgent matters, he decided to leave for Tokyo-3 a few days earlier.

How sweet of him. Asuka thought. Always so charming and thoughtful.

Kaji held his hand out, "Why don't I help you with your luggage?"

And Asuka promptly left her luggage with him as the both of them were now headed to his car. Nothing to be embarrassed about, she reasoned. It's a lady privilege.

"Such hot weather." Asuka commented as the both of them started to enter an outdoor carpark just outside the airport. Back in Germany, the weather was always cold, be it summer or winter.

Leading her to a sleek black Porsche, he opened a car door for the passenger seat and bowed slightly, "Ladies first."

Asuka proudly trotted into the car. Of course, I'm the princess here and you're my prince charming. Such gesture should be expected out of you. Despite that, she felt a little tingle in her heart. Bliss.

"Kaji, where are we going?" Asuka asked as she sat at the passenger seat beside him. Everything faded into a blur as it passed through a highway at 100km/h.

"Somewhere where the both of us will be together forever and ever."

"Together forever and ever?"

Asuka noticed that the speed meter was starting to dangerously approach 250km/h.

"KAJI!"

"My dear Asuka," Kaji's voice slowly turned into something deep and demonic, "We wil be together forever and ever and ever."

Turning to face her was no longer the prince charming that bought her flowers, nor the one who offered to hold her luggage or opened the car doors for her.

It was a smiling demon with two horns and red glowing eyes, revealing a set of yellow, sharp teeth.

"NOOOO!"

"What's wrong?" Kaji asked when he heard a loud scream from a slumbering Asuka who probably had a bad dream.

"Eh? No, I'm fine."

The first thing that she wanted to check was the speed meter. Good, a healthy 80km/h. Next, to confirm that Kaji who was seated beside her and curently driving is not a transforming demon that wanted to be with her forever and ever in hell.

"Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise," Kaji winked.

"Aww okay." Asuka knew that whenever you see a Kaji winking after mentioning some sort of surprise, asking what the surprise was is pointless. As stubborn as her period, as she would "succinctly" define it.

Meanwhile, a ringtone suddenly blared into life. She realized it wasn't her phone when Kaji picked his phone that rested comfortably in an open compartment beside him and Asuka that looked more like a nest for his phone.

"Who is this?"

"NERV HQ. Urgent. Asuka."

And then he dropped the phone back into the compartment and made a sharp U-Turn. He knew exactly what did the caller mean.

"Kaji?"

"Emergency. You're needed."

Asuka smiled. She missed her Unit-02 a lot and soon, they would be reunited once more.

"I'm always needed."

* * *

Meanwhile, Touma sat in the classroom bored as he observed an old man droning on and on about Second Impact.

What the hell was Second Impact all about anyway. Smells exactly like a fish market in Hokkaido to me. He thought. If that strong feeling in his mind could speak, it would say that the teacher is spewing lies even more efficiently than a lie spewing machine.

Or perhaps he is actually just a better model of a lie spewing machine, Touma replied to his strong feeling.

If it was one thing that made Tokyo-3 seem a tiny bit more technologically advanced than Academy City, it would be the red laptop that every student had on their desk. And why did his school not consider implementing a built-in computer on every desk since they had access to technology 30 years ahead of its time, he had no idea.

Rei was staring out of the window the whole time, Touma noted. She had an arm sling on her arm and several bandages over her head. In most animes, this usually meant that she would probably hold the key due to her mysterious nature for his escape of this virtual giant prison that was the universe itself .

All mysterious girl are delicate species. Handle with care. An advice given by his friend Aogami Pierce who had a fetish on almost everything. Touma often wondered why did the Touma of the old made such a friend like Aogmi. Was it because the old him is actually a secret fetish king? Every night he prayed hard that this wasn't part of the Imagine Breaker's game of misfortune.

Strangely, his hand slipped onto the keyboard and accidentally pressed a few buttons that happened to be a combination you press when you want the whole class to suddenly gasp with awe and wonderment. At least, that was what it seemed like to Touma.

He briefly glanced at his computer screen and then he realised why.

_Are you the pliot of the Eva? Y/N_

_Y_

Loud noises of chairs being dragged about broke the silence of the classroom with the teacher filling the background sound with his monotonous lecturing as the students got up from their seat and started flocking towards Touma's table like bee attracted to honey.

"SIT DOWN, YOU GUYS!" The class rep yelled. She had brown hair in two ponytails and freckles. "CLASS ISN'T OVER!"

It was futile. Touma had re-activated (though unwillingly as always) his magnet for misfortune and no amount of yelling is going to change that.

"What's that robot thing?"

"How were you chosen?"

"Is it easy to control?"

Touma threw a quick glance at Rei who seemed unperturbed about this even though she was staring in his direction now.

"Save me," he mouthed together with a hand gesture indicating that he was drowning in a sea of students but this only elicited a confused look from her before she continued her window gazing.

Meanwhile, the brown haired boy with glasses just 2 seats beside Touma was gleefully jotting down bits of juicy information that the pilot revealed, even though it was mostly censored with simple details. At the back of the classroom, a jockey with black hair characterized by his blue sweatshirt and pants glared furiously at the new transfer student who revealed himself to be the pilot of that robot.

"That idiotic pilot. I'll make him pay for this," he hissed furiously under his breath.

Meanwhile, the compliments started to pour in.

"You looked so cool!"

"That robot's amazing!"

"You're a hero!"

The bell rung, cutting the teacher off of his droning and obliviousness to his surroundings. He turned around from the window. "Oh! That's all for the day then."

The jockey continued to stare at Touma with digust. Hero, my foot.

* * *

During lunch break, a certain misfortunate purple, spiky haired boy got knocked down to the ground by a trembling fist from the jockey at the back of the school building.

"Sorry newcomer, but I had to clobber you to get it off my chest."

"Why did you hit me?!" Touma remained on the ground, shocked at the sudden hostility of this blue jockey.

"BECAUSE YOU'RE DUMB AND IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY! HOW COULD YOU WRECK OUR OWN CITY LIKE THAT? WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?"

The brown haired boy with glasses who was beside the jockey leaned close to Touma and whispered, "He's mean, huh? His sister was injured last time you and your robot fought a battle." The boy stepped back. "Well, that is his excuse."

"I'm Kensuke," pointing to the jockey beside him, " and that jerk over there is Toji."

Touma got up and attempted to diffuse the current hosility, "Well, I'm sorry about your sister. I'll... be more careful next time." However, as we all know, it never once worked in his favour.

Toji grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up high, "Is sorry all you can say? Really? You think an apology would suffice?!"

In a chokeslam-seque style, he hammered Touma to the ground. After glaring at him for the last time, Toji stormed off and Kensuke quickly followed behind.

Most mecha pliots gets praised and even thanked for saving the lives of many, not being beaten up just because he failed to save one. Or maybe that's one of the behind the scenes part of a pliot that people conveniently omitted in animes. Touma thought.

Lying on the concrete ground flat on his back, he stared into the deep blue sky admiring the movements of the clouds for a moment. Different clouds were drifting apart and different clouds were merging into one. People drift apart and meet new people, forming new relationships and abandoning old ones.

Touma wondered if decades had actually passed back in his own universe. A 30 year old Biribiri and Index, long forgotten about a charming young man named Kamijou Touma and probably married with kids of their own. Such misfortune.

Suddenly, the face of Misato suddenly filled his entire vision.

"I've been looking for you all day. We have an emergency."

Then, the alarms all around sounded.

"A SPECIAL STATE OF EMERGENCY HAS BEEN DECLARED FOR THE KANTO AND JOHTO REGIONS SURROUNDING THE TOUKAI DISTRICT! ALL RESIDENTS MUST EVACUATE TO THEIR DESIGNATED SHELTERS IMMEDIATELY!"

"Hurry up, Shinji," Misato urged and she ran off expecting Touma to quickly follow behind.

"Can my day get any more worse," Touma groaned.

* * *

From the large video screen in the command center, a mysterious stingray with two shining whips hanging loosely at the sides was approaching Tokyo-3 rapidly through the ocean.

"The last time the Angels gave us 15 years. Now, we only had 3 weeks to prepare for the next assault." A man sitting at one of the command decks commented.

Sharp clobbing footsteps could be heard from a distance. It was Ritsuko rushing behind Maya, urgently asking a very important question.

"Where's Misato?"

"Off to find Shinji."

Moments later, the stingray Angel reached land and stood up, revealing a pair of legs and a red core with several rows of bones serving as a birdcage protecting the core on its chest that was hidden underneath its stingray exterior while it was swimming. The two shining whips served as the Angel's arm.

Swinging the whip about, it started to rip apart buildings like cutting through butter that was obstructing its way.

From the ground, the JDSSF had deployed several tanks and stationed soldiers to fire at the menacing Angel that looked like a giantantic human wearing a stingray costume for a promotional event.

"Fire!"

Fuyutsuki smirked at how futile their actions were as he watched the JDSSF's attempt to fight the Angel from the topmost platform for an A.T field manifested almost immediately to shield the Angel from the gunfire.

"What a waste of taxpayer's money."

"The government is requesting that we dispatch an Evangelion again," said Ritsuko after she received a phone call. "Of all times when the commander isn't here, she just had to go off to find that pliot."

"Dispatch Eva Unit-00 for now," Fuyutsuki said.

Ritsuko turned her head upwards to face him, "Rei is still injured. Are you that confident she'll be able to defend against the Angel until one of the pliots arrive?"

"I've never doubted Rei's skills in plioting."

"All right, launch Unit-00." Ritsuko commanded.

A giant, blue cycloptic robot rested on one of the lanuch pad from a separate large area beside the command center.

"Security bolts from 1-21 released. Evangelion Unit-00 ready for launch."

"Lanuch!"

And it surfaced onto Tokyo-3 through a hatchdoor opening. Meanwhile, several buildings were starting to sink down as if it was setting up an empty stage for the battle to begin.

"Rei, are you okay?" Ritsuko asked from the communciation channel to Unit-00.

"Yes."

"Distract the Angel until backup arrives, is that understood?"

"Yes."

The side of the robot's right leg split open to reveal a huge custom M-16 machine gun stored inside. Taking the gun out with only her right hand, Rei began to fire at the Angel to grab its attention. Her left hand was still injured and this is shown by the limping left arm of the Unit-00.

Turning to face Unit-00 which its gunfire barely scratched the Angel, it extended a whip and attempted to lash down on Unit-00's torso but Rei grabbed hold of the whip instead by using its left hand.

She winced in pain. "The whip seems to be made up of molten lava." All of the strength that she could muster in her arm started ebbing away.

Undeterred, the Angel extended its remaining whip and attempted to lash down on the torso again, forcing Rei to drop her machine gun to grab hold of the whip.

"Let go now!"

Using her grip on both of the whips, Rei gave one violent tug that sent the 50 ton stingray flying in her direction before volleying it towards a nearby hillside. She felt several tendons in her left arm snapping in a rapid fire fashion.

The layers of amour covering both hands of the Eva completely melted off, exposing a brown hand that strangely resembled a real human hand observed from faint traces of what seemed to be fingernails.

"Ritsuko!" Misato shouted as she quickened her pace towards her.

"About time! Is the pliot in Unit-02 already?"

"Yes. He's probably starting up the Eva as we speak."

"He?" Ritsuko asked, "Really?"

"Shinji Ikari. The designated pliot for Unit-02 have not arrived. We don't really have much of a choice given the current situation right now."

Turning to the screen, a struggling Unit-00 was frantically trying to dodge blows after blows from the Angel's whip as it attempted to slice the Eva apart. It was also clear that Rei had no more weapons to defend herself and could hold out no longer.

"Is there something wrong with this arrangement?" Misato looked at her quizzically.

She quickly opened up the communication channel of Unit-02. "It's just that... never mind."

* * *

"Evangelion Unit-02, activate!"

"Fehler, Fehler!"

Touma slumped back into his seat as he watched the various 'Fehler' starting to pop out like mushroom, filling the screen completely. An alarm also sounded and he shook his head in despair. Such misfortune.

"Can you hear me?"

"Ritsuko?"

"Now, listen closely. Say, Ändern des japanischen."

"Än-de-ren? Could you at least tell me what kind of secret code is this?!"

"Its German." Ritsuko's voice grew more urgent, "Hurry up and say it already."

"Ännderen desss japanisuchen."

Instantly, a soft green light from the screen banished all of the 'Fehler' on the screen and a faint humming noise could be heard while LCL started to fill the plug.

"Change to Japanese successful."

"Security bolts from 22-24 released. Evangelion Unit-02 ready for launch."

From another hatchdoor opening, that Eva surfaced onto Tokyo-3 armed with a F-16 rifle.

"Rei, backup has arrived. Retreat now."

"Understood."

Unit-02 quickly opened fire on the Angel, hoping to divert its attention from Unit-00. It succeeded and turning to face Touma now, it decided on retaliation by stiffening its whips, turning it into a lightsaber and charged towards him. Taking advantage of this, Rei quickly escaped into a metal cage that erupted suddenly from a hatchdoor opening and it quickly disappeared into the ground.

Instinctively, Touma threw the gun away and dodged behind buildings after buildings which got slashed into pieces as the Angel relentlessly attempts to slash him instead.

"Progressive Blade engaged."

A blade popped out in a horizontal manner from a right shoulder compartment attached on the Eva and Touma grabbed the blade.

Unfortunately, the length of the blade made it look more like a dagger than a proper sword. He wondered how the world was he going to fight two long lightsaber with a dagger. Meanwhile, he continued to dance around the concrete jungle while the Angel would cut the trees that was protecting him.

* * *

A red haired girl was literally screaming at an unfortunate bespectacled man at a command deck who decided to answer her question while the dashing young man beside her could only smile apologetically.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN BY SHINJI IKARI IS CURRENTLY PILOTING MY UNIT-02!

"Unit-00 is a prototype. Unit-01 is a test model. Unit-02 is the final model. The first true Evangelion made to defeat the Angels. AND YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT WORTHLESS SHINJI IS PILOTING MY UNIT-02 ON IT'S FIRST BATTLE."

"I'll have you know that 'worthless pliot' you mentioned reached a sync rate of 41.3% on his first experience with an Eva." The man had enough of this obnoxious red haired girl.

"SHUT UP. THAT'S NOT THE POINT."

"Relax a little." Kaji rested a hand briefly on Asuka's shoulder.

"It's you. Why am I not surprised." Misato said.

Kaji waved a hand at her, "It's been a long time."

Ignoring him, she observed Unit-02 from the screen intently.

Asuka requested a status check of Unit-02, revealing that no A.T field was detected from the Eva.

"What in the world is he doing!"

She decided to scream into the communication channel of her Unit-02, "GOTT DAMM IT. FUCKING DEPLOY AN A.T FIELD AND STAB THE CORE."

* * *

Meanwhile, Touma had heard the screaming girl as he successfully managed to dodge behind another building while the Angel continued to slash its way through. Although it had a pair of legs but slow in his movements and quick with its attacks. It seemed as though the menacing Angel with a stingray for a head was a 87 year old granny trying to finish its prey off.

He grabbed hold of a control lever beside him to pull it all the way down to deploy an A.T field at maximum, but he realised that it already was pulled all the way down.

"Already at maximum." Touma replied.

"Make sure the lever is completely down."

"It is already down."

"ARE YOU BEING INTENTIONALLY FUNNY ON PURPOSE? There. Is. No. Field. Detected."

A strange feeling crept up from Touma's spine to his brain.

If there's no field detected, that it would only mean... Imagine Breaker?

That sudden realization made him pause for a moment and seizing the opportunity, the Angel sliced the building into pieces with one lightsaber and stabbed the Eva's abdomen with another lightsaber before following up with one more stab from the free lightsaber.

"Shinji!" Misato yelled as she watched the two sabers piercing through the Eva.

"Dummkopf." Asuka muttered. Kaji mentioned that he had something on, thus he left the command center before he could witness this scene. Such a pity, she thought. This was proof of how incapable that Shinji Ikari was. So what if he had a 41.3% sync rate on his first experience with an Eva, it doesn't mean that he's a capable pilot. Unlike me.

Touma gripped his knife tightly. The distance between the Eva and the Angel was at 4 meters and he could cover it that distance in 4 steps. Although he could feel the same burning pain on his abdomen, but that pain faded away soon after.

Blasting forth towards the Angel, he aimed for that red core which was protected by a bony birdcage. Pain started accumulating once more as the insides of the Eva's abdomen rubbed intensely against the searing surface of the lightsaber.

"It's an A.T field! He's not going to make it through."

"Shinji!" Misato stared at the hexagonal barrier that the Angel had already manifested. No doubt he's going to get stopped on his tracks and thrown off.

However, Touma curled his right hand into a fist and negated the A.T field like switching off a holographic projection just by coming into contact with the projection itself. After that, he gripped the handle of the knife with both of his hand and stabbed through the cage right into its red core, pinning the Angel down to the ground.

The red core flickered for a moment before it turned dull. He had defeated the Angel much to Asuka's contempt.

"Shinji... he did it."

"Glücklich bastard." Asuka rolled her eyes. That was nothing.

So Gendo was right, there is something special about that right hand after all. Ritsuko mused. That right hand strangely seem to be able to negate A.T fields. A living Lance of Longinus, she would tentatively define it as such for now.

* * *

After Touma had changed out of his plug suit in the changing room, he was about to walk out from the room when he saw a red haired girl furiously storming in his direction.

"Shinji Ikari. Am I right?"

"Yeah...?" He doubted that the girl would believe that he's really Kamijou Touma anyway.

Sensing immediate danger, Touma sidestepped to his left, dodging a slap that Asuka had intended to give him but she sent a roundhouse kick to his face, knocking him off balance momentarily.

"What was that for?!"

Just a few hours ago it was that Toji, now its that absurd red haired girl. Is I, Kamijou Touma an unfortunate punching bag for people that go crazy every now and then?

"That's for piloting my Unit-02 without permission. The name's Asuka Langley Soryu so don't start crying that that's unfair of me."

Asuka reached out a hand as a gesture for a handshake, "I guess we'll be fellow pilots from now on so please do look out for me."

Multiple alarm bells signalling imminent doom start going off in Touma's head, however it was always in silent mode much to his misfortune, thus he decided to reach a hand out for a handshake.

"SUCH MISFORTUNE!"

* * *

Ritsuko was busy with stacks and stacks of paperwork of paperwork in her office as usual when she heard a small beep from her antique desktop computer. A video call from Gendo.

"Ritsuko, how is that Third Child coming along?"

She noted that he was in a luxurious ship cabin resting on a sofa. From the circular window beside him, she could also tell that it was almost dusk as the reddish light slightly illuminated the cabin.

"He successfully synced with Eva Unit-02. A theoretical impossibility but theories are theories after all."

"I see. Is there anything else you'd like to report?"

"From current observations, it seems as though the pliot is able to negate any A.T field so long as his right hand comes into contact with it. Proven to hold true in both Unit-01 and Unit-02."

Gendo took a glass of wine from the coffee table and took a sip, "Unit-00 would prove to be an interesting experience then. I assume that you've already started working on the Dummy Plug system."

"Yes. After I've observed that it is indeed feasible from that pilot's experience with Unit-02."

"That's good. That's all for now."

The video screen turned pitch black. Always leaving without a proper goodbye. Just like before. Ritusko decided to continue with her paperwork. No time to waste on this stupid man.

Gendo took a crumpled piece of grey silk out from his pocket and spread it out carefully on the table. Various strange symbols and scrawlings could be seen from it.

"Nonsense, they say. Impossible, they say. But how wrong they were."

He smirked. This time, he had the upper hand over those old fools known as SEELE.

* * *

Touma sat in his classroom bored once again. Rei was not in school due to her injury, apparently she had a surgery on her arm and needed to rest in the hospital for a few days. The constant chirping of the cicadas reminded him of his supplementary classes during summer break. A reminder of his encounter with various misfortunes simply from attending those classes.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

He had an ominous feeling about the sounds. A prelude to a tragic orchestra composed by misfortune itself.

The classroom door shifted slowly to the left, revealing frame by frame, the human form that misfortune had chosen to take on.

It was a form of a red-haired girl in a school uniform. She strutted up confidently to the whiteboard and wrote her name in Katakana.

"My name is Asuka Langley Soryu. I'll be your new classmate from now on. Do take care of me."

She winked knowingly at Touma.

Calm down, Kamijou Touma. You've been through worse. You've been through Index and BiriBiri! Not to mention countless magicians that could crush this girl with a single spell. And Accelerator too. No one could stand up against him and live (except me of course).

Still, he could not relax. The alarm bells in his head had finally switched to normal mode but it was too late much to his misfortune.

"GAHH! SUCH MISFORTUNE!"

* * *

**Author's Note**: Sorry for the late update, was busy with school and the upcoming tests so yeah. I suppose you've figured out by now that if I end a chapter with somebody still in an Evangelion or a To Aru universe, the next chapter will be in the same universe. This is to prevent confusion given that the nature of my story is pretty much parallel to each other (for now).

[EDIT: 03/04/2013

I take back what I said about this. Damm, I shouldn't have used "will" but "most probably." But I don't think the transition is confusing actually if you read from the start.]

By the way, sorry if the German here is lousy. I translated from Japanese to German for better results than English to German so I hope it still isn't as bad.

I'll just reply the guest reviews here. If you want a faster reply, do login with your main account so that I may PM you (which is way faster LOL) instead.

Shinji-kun: Well, thanks for reviewing every chapter! Do continue to review yeah :D Anyway, I liked that particular line back in Rebuild 2.0 since it was so... mysterious in many ways. As though the Rebuild was a mere deviation in the timeline which he was fully aware about so it really opens up a lot of possibility for plot ideas.

I wouldn't say that Touma must finish his quest in Evangelion only, maybe the two worlds might collide somehow? But that's probably another plot line for later parts of the story.

Guest: Maybe I might do another version of the Angel Fall actually... hmm spoliers, haha.

Lastly, thank you guys for all your reviews as always. Do keep them coming! As always, whether be it a simple praise or some concrit, they are all greatly appreciated.

And that's all from me I guess. I may be quite slow on the next update since I have an exam coming up so I apologise in advance for that. Don't worry, I'll update as soon as I can!


	6. 6: Deception

Touma sat up on his bed, unable to fall asleep. It was a moonless night hence the room was completely pitch black.

"Why should I continue to pliot the Eva?" He asked himself.

Internally, a voice replied, "Because it was Ikari Shinji's destiny and you're the unfortunate chap that replaced him."

"No. It's just that... that Angel I've killed. It feels as though I've killed someone. Somehow, it feels as though I forced this Eva kill its own kind. Yeah, that's the closest approximation. I feel guilty."

And he continued to stare into the darkness.

Maybe if he stared long enough, a shiny portal will open up and suck him back into Academy City.

* * *

"Asuka~ Marry me!"

"No, marry me."

"I love you! Marry me instead."

Asuka walked through the gate of the school as throngs of males swarmed behind her screaming for her hand in marriage. Even after she walked past the gate, several groups of male welcomed her into the school like a princess visiting for the first time.

In less than a week, she had literally charmed the shoes off the entire male population of the students, save for Toji and Kensuke who looked at her with disgust from outside classroom window as she proudly held her chest up while she made her way into the school building.

"Such a little slut." Toji said.

"Honestly, we all know that if you look beyond her pretty red hair and the fact that she's part German, she just a bitch inside." Kensuke said.

The last time, she had 'corrected' him so badly about his misinformed knowledge about the German tanks that the whole class laughed at him.

It didn't help that he was a boy who looked every one bit of a nerd from his spectacles to his height.

He swore that he would never rely on Wikipedia for information ever again.

Later that day, he was playing basketball with Toji on the court when Asuka (with a swarm of boys following her around as usual) requested a match between him and Toji. A 2 versus 1 basketball match.

In less than 7 minutes, she scored 19 half court shots and 4 full court shots. The final score was 53-0 in a 45 minute match.

Ever since then, the boys would laugh at Toji whenever he started practising on the court, forcing him to stop playing for a while to let the incident die down.

Meanwhile, Kensuke glanced briefly at the empty seat that was Touma's seat in class.

"Hey, you do owe that guy an apology you know."

Toji looked at him with a flash of annoyance on his face, "Yeah, yeah, it was all my fault. My sister didn't listen to instructions and wandered into the darkness outside the shelter when she got electrocuted."

Kensuke went to his desk and digged out a piece of handout from his bag that he held out in front of Toji, "Well, this might make this less awkward than it already is."

He snatched the handout from Kensuke, "Well thanks."

"Speaking of which, where is that Shinji anyway. It's almost 8 and school is about to start."

* * *

The alarm clock had failed Touma once again. When he realised that it was already 7.30, he jumped from his bed and activated his emergency plan when about to be late for school.

Firstly, to brush his teeth in 15 seconds flat.

Unfortunately, he snapped his toothbrush into two since he gripped it too hard while brushing vigorously.

Touma decided to rinse the toothpaste off his mouth and grab some mint sweets that he bought on impulse from a convenience store last night while buying dinner for Misato and him instead.

Only to find that the box of sweets were already empty when he opened the fridge. Touma sighed, yet he was smiling as if he had already expected this.

Stuffing a piece of bread from the dining table into his mouth, he rushed into his room to change out of his pink pyjamas that a drunk Misato forced him to wear on the spur of the moment. When he politely refused, she vomited on his shirt, forcing him to wear the piece of clothing that only a depraved lolicon would wear.

"Ok, maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all!" Touma glanced at a small clock beside the TV before leaving the house.

In total, he had only spent 5 minutes preparing for school.

His best record was at 4 minutes 23 seconds when Komoe sent out a love threat stating that if he did not arrive in school in exactly 8.10am, he would be put through the see-through lesson.

Turns out that he had to be put through the game anyway since he did not have enough development credits.

Touma frantically rushed towards the bus that arrived just in time when he slipped and fell hard on a banana slip.

Because of that, he missed the bus.

Adding on to his misery, there was a slight bus service disruption today and he finally managed to board the bus at 9.00 am.

When he reached school, he realised that the gates were already locked. Undeterred, he climbed over the gate and successfully sneaked past a lone security guard sleeping soundly in the comfort of his guard post into the school building.

Touma heaved a sigh of relief.

Perhaps there's a limit to how one can be unlucky after all.

However, he opened the classroom door to an Asuka who was about to open the door as well. Shocked at his sudden appearance, she kicked him hard in the crotch.

"GYAA!"

* * *

"Honestly, it's not exactly my fault that you appeared out of nowhere." Asuka said as she looked at Touma from her desk beside him who was gently nursing his crotch with utmost care. Whether or not he had to permanently cross out Father's Day from his calender would depend on how well he nursed his crotch.

"Shut up before I cross out Mother's Day from your calender."

Ignoring the threat, she continued, "You're better off being an eunuch since you already look like one anyway."

"Stop it you two," A girl with freckles and brown hair tied into ponytails said as she now stood between them.

"Hikari," Asuka noted that she was holding a few pieces of paper," Could that possibly be handouts?"

"Ah yes, it's for Rei. Since Shinji was late for school, he is to personally deliver it to her house as a form of punishment."

"Rei? You mean Ayanami Rei?"

"Is there a problem...?"

Asuka grinned, "I'll deliver the handouts," turning to Touma who was still nursing his precious crotch back to its former glory, "with him of course."

Toji decided that he would pass Touma's own handouts to him tomorrow.

* * *

"Honestly, don't NERV pay her enough to afford a decent apartment?" Asuka commented as the both of them were navigating through a dirty corridor where the occasional rats and cockroaches could be seen darting about.

Since cleaning robots often roamed about in Academy City, Touma had almost forgotten that the thin, small grimy animal and the black, narrow ovals with two antennas were known as rats and cockroaches respectively.

Upon reaching a blue door with a metal title '#402 Ayanami' etched on top, he lightly knocked on it.

No response.

Asuka decided to grab the handle and open the door directly instead. To her surprise, it was not locked at all. She had planned to bust open the door with one swift kick but decided to try opening the door first as a form of courtesy.

"I'm sorry to disturb." She annouced proudly as she walked through the kitchen into the only room in the apartment.

Touma was surprised that the entire apartment only had a kitchen with a bathroom similar to the one in Misato's apartment where it was located in the kitchen and a room.

"Verdammt." The black smudges on the floor had dirtied her pristine white socks," Is she that lazy of a person?"

Asuka also noticed that she did not possess any form of entertainment such as a television,"Not to mention boring."

Sauntering around the room, she observed how messy and lazy of a person Rei seemed to be.

Her uniform lay crumpled on her bed while a bag of litter was placed beside the mini fridge by the side of the wall.

Furthermore, she had neglected to draw the curtains, giving the whole room a gloomy look.

"What is she, a vampire?"

Meanwhile, Asuka noticed a pair of glasses resting on a brown drawer by the window beside a glass of water and several medications.

She decided to put it on, "Hey, hey, how do I look?" turning to Touma who stood near the entrance of the room. He felt that it was not right of him, especially that Asuka to intrude on her privacy.

"Err, Asuka. I'd suggest you put that glasses down now."

"Why? I think I look great in th-"

Rei had appeared from the bathroom, drying herself with a brown towel and only wearing the towel. She stopped and looked at her with confusion before it turned into anger. Her menacing red eyes caused Asuka to take a step back, "Uh! I-"

She walked over to her much to Asuka's horror, "I-I didn't mean-"

Rei took the glasses off causing Asuka to slip and lose her balance. Rei tried to hold her steady but she failed to do so and the both of them fell to the ground.

Asuka felt her right hand gripping something soft.

She realized it was Rei's breast.

The towel had slipped away during the scuffle, exposing every part of her body. Asuka had an awkward look on her face as she lay ontop on a nude Rei who did not seem to be perturbed at all.

"Get off from me." Rei broke the silence.

"Right!" Asuka smiled sheepishly as she promptly stood up, "Well, we wanted to pass you your handouts since you were absent for the past few days."

Rei carefully placed the glasses back to its original position, "So where are the handouts?"

"Its with Shinji." Asuka said as she turned towards Touma who was blushing crimson red.

And then she realized something.

"HENTAI BAKA!"

* * *

"She should've sued you for sexual harassment and invasion of privacy." Touma said as the both of them boarded the bus back home.

It was empty and so the both of them sat at opposite ends of the window seat.

"It was just an accident." Asuka said while looking out of the window, "I can't believe that Wondergirl actually changed into her bra and panties in the presence of YOU."

"Wondergirl?"

"Ayanami Rei. Shut up. That's my new nickname for her."

"Right. Only God knows what was your previous nickname for her."

"There is something wrong with her. It's creepy."

"Trust me when I say there is something equally wrong with you as well."

"Wha-what?!" Asuka spluttered, "I'm just a girl with a healthy dose of confidence in the way she does things."

"Nobody drops a roundhouse kick on somebody that they met for the very first time! And nobody would indiscriminately kick somebody in the crotch just because he had appeared 'out of nowhere'." Touma trailed off into a mutter, "Maybe that Biribiri would..."

"Who is Biribiri? Your fantasy lightning godness? My Japanese is not that bad you know. I once read a light novel in Japanese back in Germany about a Biribiri who was obsessed with chasing a protagonist who could negate her lightning powers with his right hand. What was that city in the novel called again... ah yes, Academy City."

Touma's face instantly turned pale, "Did you just say Academy City?"

"Yeah, is there anything wrong?" Asuka looked at him quizically.

"S-so does the protagonist happen to be a guy named Kamijou Touma who is plagued with misfortune as a result of a mysterious power that could negate anything supernatural?"

"You read the novel too?"

"What if I tell you I'm that Kamijou Touma!"

Asuka looked at him as if he had lost his mind before bursting into laughter, "It's all fiction, idiot. Academy City dont exist at all. ESPer's abilities and Magic are simply a wish fulfilling fantasy of the author. Well, I suppose if such things exists, there wouldn't be any need for the Evas anymore. And that you're just as misfortunate as him I suppose... no wait, you should be fortunate that you're friends with the most popular lady in school."

Touma thought. I am that misfortunate from knowing you. And that's because I'm really Kamijou Touma! He realised that even if Asuka were to beileve that he was really a come alive character from a novel, there was nothing she could do to change the situation. Thus, he decided to probe around for more information regarding the novel instead.

"And if I may ask, what was the ending of this novel?"

"Err... Biribiri became that Kamijou Touma's girlfriend a few volumes later and the story went downhill from there so I stopped reading."

"And what is title of the novel?"

Despite the various discrepancies in the novel to his life, (it looked more like a wish fulfilling novel that Biribiri herself wrote) it was his only clue.

The world around him seemed to have stopped for a moment while he waited for her reply.

"I forgot."

Touma blinked his eyes in astonishment, "What?"

"I said I forgot. Or do you want me to repeat myself in German?"

"No. Never mind." Touma turned away from Asuka and looked out of the window.

If Academy City exists as a novel in Tokyo-3, could Tokyo-3 somehow exist in the same way in Academy City? He tried his best to recall any form of any memories that had the tag Tokyo-3 on it.

Nothing.

He tried harder. Still nothing.

And then he thought about what Asuka had said. Biribiri being his girlfriend and the novel probably went downhill because (assuming that the author is Biribiri herself) she became too unrealistic and could somehow fry Kamijou Touma in 18 different ways and he would still come running to her knees like a masochist though nothing could be said if it was Aogami Pierce.

Girlfriend... girlfriend... of steel?

It hit him like a dumbbell smashed over his head. Of course! It was a visual novel set in Tokyo-3 where a girl named Kirishima Mana was sent to the same school as Shinji Ikari.

At that time, Touma had lamented how misfortunate he was when his Magical Shoujou visual novel magically became a Girlfriend of Steel visual novel.

Accepting his fate, he played through the introductory part where the female protagonist, Kirishima Mana meets Shinji Ikari for the first time before his computer suddenly burst into flames. Needless to say, the CD was lost to the fire forever.

Touma now cursed himself for insisting on Magical Shoujou instead of giving Girlfriend of Steel a second chance. If he knew the whole story behind Girlfriend of Steel, surely he would able to understand why are those... Angels attacking Tokyo-3.

He could sense that they were not blindly attacking the city. It seems as though they are after something in this city.

And the Evas deployed to fight the Angels. No, they are not as simple as amoured mechas. They are as alive as the Angels in some ways, but he could not pin point exactly where.

Perhaps the real Shinji Ikari would know, he's an Eva pilot after all.

* * *

"It's pissing me off!" Asuka said while she shoved down large portions of her curry bento at an alarming rate.

Normally, during lunch time, she would be surrounded by many boys who would always try to curry favour with her.

She particularly liked the fact that Touma could never eat his lunch in peace when several other guys begged him for tips and tricks on how to approach the fiery redhead.

It was like discovering a hidden route in a dating sim and people would start begging for the solution to the route. Unfortunately, the person (Touma) who discovered the route really had no idea how he did it.

Today, everybody had flocked over to a brown haired girl who had the exact same hairstyle as Rei. Her hazel eyes shone charmingly as she smiled at the crowd of people who were seemingly asking her questions like a movie star.

"Finally, I get some peace." Touma said while he slurped down his Yakisoba Delight.

She slammed the bento box down after shoving down the last of her food. "People change fast, dont they?"

"Well, a mysterious transfer student in the middle of a school term is empirically proven to be interesting and charming."

Meanwhile, the brown haired girl left her table with a bunch of people tagging along like a troop of soldiers following its commander towards Rei's table at a peaceful corner of the cafeteria by the window. Since Asuka and Touma's table was only just two tables behind her, they could clearly hear the conversation between the both of them.

"Ayanami Rei. Am I right?"

Rei did not bother to look up and continued to read her book, "Yes."

"I'm Kirishima Mana. Let's be good friends, shall we?"

"Why?"

Mana paused for a moment, "Err... Because it would be convenient in so many ways," and then she smiled, "We could help each other out in times of need."

"If I'm ordered to, I would."

Mana blinked in astonishment at this remark before her smile returned, "I suppose you're still not used to this form yet. Disappointing."

Asuka sliently cheered her on, "As expected of Ayanami Rei!"

Touma examined the girl that claimed to be Kirishima Mana closely. An exact carbon copy of the Kirishima Mana in the visual novel. Even though she approached Shinji Ikari first in the visual novel but fiction is certainly different from reality after all.

Mana noticed that Touma was looking in her direction and so she left Rei alone and went to his table.

"You must be Ikari Shinji, yes?"

"And you're Kirishima Mana?" Touma reached out his right hand, "Nice to meet you."

Mana gripped his hand for a handshake but a sudden sharp pain shot through her own hand to her head. She abruptly broke the grip and took a step back to steady herself.

The bunch of people that had been following her from Rei's table until now started to disperse away.

"Not so popular after all huh." Asuka said as she looked at all of Mana's follower dispersing away like water evaporating at a rate 1000 times faster than the norm.

Did I just negate... something? Touma heard the sharp noise that only he could hear whenever he negated something. The unusual dispersion of the crowd suggested that he had negated a form of mind control. An ESPer in Tokyo-3? Could it be that she was also a victim just like him?

"Hey, do you happen to know of a Academy City?" Touma hoped that she would reply yes and maybe the both of them would be able to come up with something.

Mana kept her smile intact even though the question deeply bothered her. "No. Does such a place exist here?

Speaking of which, its about time that I head to class now. See you around."

She turned around just in time for anybody to notice the trail of blood that started to appear from her corner of her mouth which she swiftly wiped away.

Reaching into her pocket, she took a small translucent bottle out and popped a tablet into her mouth from it.

_Such power._

Just then, the alarms around the cafeteria started to blare. An Angel had appeared.

* * *

Standing at the shores of Tokyo 3 was a grey humanoid clay figure as tall as a mini skyscraper that had arms longer than its legs. It also had a yin-yang mask for a face and the red core, though small but it could prominently be seen located at the chest unprotected.

Several battle helicopters hovered around the figure and the tanks on the ground raised their turrets, ready to fire at any moment.

The figure started to move, promptly attracting gunfire and tons of artilleries being pumped into the threat that would certainly obliterate Tokyo-3 if left unchecked.

The clayish surface of the Angel merely absorbed whatever that was unleashed on it like a quicksand.

"It's not even raising an A.T field." Misato said as she watched the Angel continued its progress into the city and had already crushed a few tanks under its feet and knocked down several buildings that was in the way from the large video screen in the command center.

"It wouldn't need one when it could simply absorb," Ritsuko said, "It could be that the Angels are now trying to rely less on their A.T field and more on physically surviving without one."

"Are both 01 and 02 ready for launch?"

"Yes," Maya typed a few commands into the interface, "Evangelion Unit 01 and 02 is ready to launch at any moment."

* * *

Touma now appreciated how much more natural Unit 01 is, as compared to 02 while he lightly gripped the controls by his seat to regain his feel to pilot this Eva again.

He could feel it now.

The overwhelming difference between Unit 01 and Unit 02.

Somehow, he had a heavy feeling while piloting Unit-02, as though this Unit vehemently tried to reject his presence but it failed due to his Imagine Breaker.

"Remind me again why is that idiot tagging along when I am clearly capable of defeating the Angel myself. " Asuka's voice crackled over an open 3 way communication channel between Unit 01, 02 and the command center.

"Asuka," Misato sighed, "Teamwork is equally as important as individual play."

"But he'll only be in the way! And its my first debut battle... Eww what's that smell. Oh my poor Unit-02, defiled by such a hentai that watches pornography every night."

"Quit it already will you. I am not a hentai that watches pornography every night." Touma said.

He was embarrassed to admit that other than his limited exposure to eroges, he had never watched pornography.

And would anybody believe that a 18 year old male who had never been exposed to pornography exists in this world?

It is true that he had tried to access said websites because they were hosting those videos for free but out of the 19 attempts, each one of them only ended up in a virus infection of varying degree of seriousness.

"Security bolts 21-24 and 25-26 released. Eva Unit-01 and 02 launch!"

"Maybe we should have sent Unit-00 too." Misato said as she watched the two Evas surfacing into Tokyo-3 through the hatchdoors like moles in a Whack-A-Mole arcade game.

"Don't be silly. Unit-00 isn't combat operational yet." Ritsuko said.

Last night, she had received an emergency email from Gendo with orders to launch Unit-00 only as a last resort.

When she asked for the reasons behind it, his reply was that he didn't want complications.

Ritsuko knew that it would take at least 3 mind readers to interpret what he really meant by 'complications'. She had given up trying to figure out what exactly could he be planning now.

Armed with a spear-axe, Unit-02 crouched slightly into her battle position, ready to attack at any moment.

Unit 01 held a B-14 rifle that he would fire at the Angel as soon as Unit 02 neutralize its A.T field using its own field.

Realizing that the both the Evas were in the way about 6 meters from his current position, the Angel stopped moving.

"It just stopped moving?" Asuka said, confused at its odd behavior.

A helicopter hovered above the two Evas and broadcasted loudly, "This is Kirishima Mana, 1st Lieutenant of the JSSDF, we request the Evas to stand down."

Misato quickly included that helicopter into their open communication channel between the Evas and command center, "Why?"

"We have received permission from the government to engage Jet Alone against the Angel and we would appreciate that the Evas do not interfere."

"So its you, Kirishima Mana." Asuka growled, "Your stupid Jet Alone won't stand a chance against the Angel. Does it even have an A.T field for starters?"

"This remains to be seen, Asuka. I believe that the Jet Alone is capable enough to engage the Angel without one.

A large aircraft came into view from the clouds that floated serenely in the light blue sky. Underneath it, a robot although humanoid in shape like the Evas but it was designed rather clumsily like the robots in the 70s was held vertically upright by thin wires.

The aircraft descended closer to the ground and released the robot right in front of the Evas.

"What the fuck is this? Is this some kind of a joke? Just by design alone, my Unit-02 clearly outshines your Jet Loser."

"Ah, by the way, if you're wondering why am I that popular in school, its because I'm a pliot as well. Of course its Jet Alone. Oops, were you expecting an Eva instead? "

"I rather you burn in hell instead." Asuka tried to keep her anger in control. As if stealing my spotlight in school wasn't enough. Now she also wants to steal my spotlight fighting the Angel?!

Touma noted that the helicopter hovering above them had a N2 mine attached to the bottom.

He had a bad feeling about this when it decided to fly past the Angel but to his surprise, it simply followed the helicopter like a dog being attracted by a scent that the helicopter emitted, if it actually had one.

Both Unit 01 and 02 followed closely behind Jet Alone who was chasing the Angel now being lured back to the shores of Tokyo-3 by the helicopter.

"Well, you may tag along if you want. Just don't interfere with our battle." Mana said.

"Oh don't worry. Your Jet Loser will be out of the way soon enough. We're just there to clean up." Asuka said.

Once it reached the shores, the Angel seemed to have snapped out of a trance and it immediately raised an arm, slamming its clayish mass down on Jet Alone which it quickly defended against the blow by crossing both of its arms.

Ouch. That's gonna hurt. Mana thought. Now all she needed was one reckless movement from Unit-02 for her plan to succeed.

Touma felt that there was something fishy about the helicopter when it lured the Angel to the shores. He knew that Mana could potentially be an ESPer that can control minds to some extent.

However, could that ability work on an Angel as well?

If so, then this would explain how the helicopter could lure the Angel just by flying past it.

Mana had also mentioned that she was the pliot of Jet Alone as well. It should be remote controlled since she's on the helicopter.

Seeing that pounding in a wave-like motion on the poor Jet Alone that kept its arm crossed throughout seems to be a futile act on its part, the Angel decided to swat it away like hitting a doll with a flexible golf club into the ocean.

"Misato, how far is the maximum range for operating an unmanned Jet Alone?" Touma asked.

"About 500 meters from the files I've seen on Jet Alone, why do you ask?"

"Just wondering."

Despite a large maximum range, the pilot decides to stick dangerously close to the Angel when it could simply stay at a safe distance and still be able to operate it just fine.

The biggest mystery was actually the N2 mine underneath the helicopter.

If it wanted to lure the Angel into the ocean before dropping the mine, Jet Alone need not have to follow.

In fact, it did not need to be there in the first place. Why? Unless... no way.

Asuka smirked as she saw how disgraced Jet Alone who had its head stuck firmly underground into the seabed coupled with an exposed pair of legs in the air as the rest of the body was underwater.

Honestly, the probabilty of this happening had to be at 0.000001%. Now everybody in school would probably laugh at how disgraceful and inept of a pliot she was.

"TIME I FINISH THIS!" Gripping her spear, she leapt right up into the air, its sharp glint hinting at a certain death by a swift slice through the Angel's body right down to the core.

"ASUKA!"

Unit-01 flared into action, charging at the stationary Angel just in time to side-slam a descending Unit-02 out of the way before the N2 mine dropped, catching both Unit-01 and the Angel in its range.

A white flash erupted and after it subsided, three shadowy figures could be perceived from the smoke.

"SHINJI!" Misato screamed.

Unit-02 got up and brushed the sand off its body. "What the hell was that fo-"

Asuka sat in her entry plug shocked, unable to say a word when she saw a charred Unit-01 barely having any of its orginal form left.

Both halves of the Angel drooped the sides and bits of its clayey mass fell to the barren grey surface where there was sand before like candles melting.

"Shinji...?"

There was no response from the pliot of Unit-01.

* * *

Both Misato and Ritsuko sat in an audio-visual room where they played the video of the battle with the Angel.

"Damage to Unit-01's amour at 95%, at this rate we might as well build a new Eva from scratch." Ritsuko said.

"Look at this." Misato rewinded to the part where the helicopter flew past the Angel. "Don't you find it strange? That the helicopter managed to attract that Angel as if it had waved a piece of meat in front of the Angel."

"Kirishima Mana. 1st Lieutenant of the JSSDF. It must be noted that she rose through the ranks in less than a year. She's only 14, if age is an indicator of her capability. She's the one plioting the helicopter."

"Has the JSSDF acquired some sort of a hypnotic technology that would enable one to manipulate Angels?"

"If such technology do exist, we might as well be hypnotising Angels to kill themselves instead of worrying how are we going to fix Unit-01 up."

"Estimated 6 days before the Angel would be ready to attack again. How long would the repairs for Unit-01 take?"

"I can't tell. It will take more than 6 days though."

Misato now watched both the Evas following closely behind Jet Alone, with Jet Alone following the helicopter.

It was clear that the helicopter wanted the Angel to be as far from the city as possible, with Jet Alone engaging the enemy from there.

Asuka being Asuka tagged along and Shinji was probably worried about her.

As predicted by the MAGI, Jet Alone only had a 0.006% chance of success in defeating the Angel due to the fact that it could not generate an A.T field. Despite the near impossible odds, it succeeded in getting its head stuck into the ocean when the Angel swatted the annoying contraption away.

Unit-02, witnessing the fall of its competitor, leapt up into the air before the scene was interrupted by an invasion of a myriad of colours and it went black soon after.

"An unusual spike in the output of an A.T field in the vicinity caused this." Ritsuko pointed out.

"From that Angel?"

"Maybe. But if it did activate an A.T field at that level of power, it would have survived the explosion intact. Similiarly, if it was Unit-01, so would the Eva."

"Unit-02?"

"Don't be silly. It's A.T field got neutralized in the process."

A chilling realization creeped upon Misato. "Don't tell me...!"

"Yes. Another Angel was there."

* * *

Mana never liked being in total darkness. Thus, she felt a little uneasy being in a mysterious dark space where the 7 SEELE monoliths were.

Each one of them were represented by a shimmering black, floating stone tablet titled from SEELE #1 right up to SEELE #7 surrounding her.

"You've disappointed." SEELE #3 said.

"Reckless." SEELE #6 added.

"You can't pin all the blame on me when he clearly have much more of a brain than most Lilins." Mana retorted.

"It is fortunate that the pliot survived." SEELE #5 said.

"Let it be known that failure is not tolerated. One more mistake on your part and you'll face the consequences." SEELE #1 said.

"Tabris isn't here anymore. I'm the only one left. Any mistake on your part," Mana smiled, "You'll have to face your own consequences."

"Do not forget," SEELE #1's voice grew stronger, "We still hold something of great value to you."

"You wouldn't dare." Mana hissed.

"So long as you remember your purpose here."

SEELE #1 up to #6 faded away into the darkness.

A faceless agent appeared from the darkness beside SEELE #7 and handed Mana a translucent bottle of pills.

"This may be the last bottle you'll get. Treasure every use well."

SEELE #07 faded away into the darkness.

_This is all your fault._

* * *

Asuka sat beside Touma in a hospital ward, who was unconscious from the explosion.

Apparently, nobody knew who triggered the explosion. NERV's investigation crawled to a halt when the only footage of the battle was unable to determine what triggered the explosion.

JSSDF had no comments regarding the issue.

Kirishima Mana, 2nd Lieutenant of JSSDF expressed her condolence to the injured pilot during a press conference last night.

Ritsuko mentioned that there could be another Angel behind it. While the Angel has always been larger than life freaks, but Asuka could not deny the fact that they might also present itself in a human form.

She knew that the helicopter flew away after the explosion unharmed. If there's anything suspicious about the incident, it would be the helicopter no doubt. And the pliot might just be an Angel in disguise.

All she needed was proof.

Asuka heard a soft knock on the door, "Come in."

"How is Shinji?" Rei put a sliver vacuum flask on the overbed table.

Asuka eyed the flask suspiciously. "What's that? Soup?"

"Yes. It seems as though he is not conscious enough to drink it."

"Duh. If you're done here," Asuka pointed to the door, "You may leave."

"What about you? You've been by his side for an entire night already."

"Shut up, Wondergirl. How would you know that anyway?"

"My name is Ayanami Rei."

Both of them stared at each other with the humming sound of the aircon and the rhythmic beeping of the heart-rate monitor filling the silence.

Asuka had enough of the awkwardness and broke the silence first, "It's just a nickname."

"Oh."

"Anything else you want to say?"

"Hi~ Is Shinji alright."

Asuka spun behind to see a cheerful Mana who waved her hand at her.

She looked at her with astonishment. "How'd you get here? You didn't even open the door!"

"I did. You just didn't hear it." Mana winked knowingly at Rei, "She saw me open the door."

Rei knitted her brows ever so slightly to the point where nobody could see that she did knit her brows even if they tried. "Yes. This is correct."

Asuka got up from her chair, "But... but... It was so quiet throughout..." and jabbed a finger at Mana's chest," You. You're an Angel, am I right? You caused the explosion! You aim to eliminate all of the Eva series so that your other Angels can invade Tokyo-3 unhindered!"

Mana brushed the finger away and pushed Asuka into the chair before leaning close to her in a seductive manner.

She whispered sweetly into her ears, "If you're right... then why don't you try and stop me?"

Stifling a giggle, Mana walked out of the ward and slammed the door.

_Only Lilins would bother closing the door, and in such a polite manner as well._

* * *

Author's note: Okay, so I managed to finish this chapter before my exams were finished. (yay!) I suppose a little consistent effort in writing goes a long way.

If you're wondering why Touma seems to be a god in deduction, I would like to quote Tsukiyomi Komoe.

"Why is it that when it comes to girls, Kamijou's movements and thinking ability improves by multi-fold times? Sensei hopes that you can use that on your studies!"

So... I suppose this chapter could be considered as a cliffhanger of sorts, but I should probably shoot myself if I don't have at least one.

Anyway, so have fun guessing who Kirishima Mana really is while you wait for the next chapter.

Lastly, thank you guys so much for reviewing and liking/faving. Do continue to review and/or liking and/or faving yeah!

By the way, I made some slight changes in Chapter 4 so do check that out also :)


	7. 7: Subterfuge

**Author's note:** One of the rare moments I put the author's note at the front.

Okay, so maybe the story was too fast when Krasie pointed that out. So, I've added something behind to as to make the story flow better.

There's a Haruhi reference inside also, haha, should be quite obvious.

Hope its much better than before.

And do review if you have any comments! Or fav or follow if you want :)

Chapter edited as of 17/04/2013.

* * *

"Breaking news report! Several rows of buildings mysteriously disappeared overnight. The government is currently investigating the matter."

"Eh, what the hell?" Touma said as he glanced over the morning news that Misato's pet, Pen-Pen was watching. Another day of school, another boring day with Asuka always tagging along.

While Asuka claimed that she needed his protection against those crazy admirers, recently, none of them would even take a second look at her. Despite that, she still insisted on him being her bodyguard.

Everyday, he would be listening to her complaints about Kirishima Mana stealing all of her fans through underhanded means. As if she had a fan club in the first place, and the underhanded means that Mana used would be different the next day.

Even in the hospital after he awoke from his coma about two days later from the battle against the Angel, he was not spared from Asuka's 'how awesome Mana seemed, but in reality she sucks' ramblings.

After a few hours later, he was discharged from the hospital with Asuka blushing red while she shoved a thermos flask containing soup into his bag that she made as a form of thanks for saving her life.

"Wark." Pen-pen said as it turned behind to acknowledge Touma's presence.

"Good morning."

"Wark."

Pen-pen turned back to watch the news. Misato mentioned that this penguin actually had human intelligence, but it just did not have the means to express itself in terms of the human language. Seeing the penguin watch the news as if it understood everything was enough proof for Touma.

"I'm going off to school." Touma waved the penguin goodbye as he stepped out of the door.

"Wark."

I wonder how Asuka's going to feel about Mana joining our class today. Touma thought.

According to the Schrödinger's cat theory, the cat in the box can be both simultaneously alive or dead. If it was Asuka and Mana in the box, the both of them can only be dead. Reality does not encompass the possibility of either one of them or both of them alive.

Today, the bus came early. Touma was aware that this could only meant a larger misfortune coming his way.

He tried to cheer himself up by switching his viewpoint about his misfortune. Maybe this would appease the god of misfortune that has taken a liking to him since birth.

I wonder what misfortune it would be this time. So exciting~ I'm looking forward to it!

However, it came out as something sarcastic in his head.

I give up.

And so, Kamijou Touma begins yet another day of his life in school.

* * *

"Class, we have a new student." The teacher said as a brown haired girl who was smiling at the rest of the class stood beside him.

"Hi, I'm Kirishima Mana. Please take care of me."

Mana bowed politely once before she went back to her seat.

"Wow, isn't she that popular girl I've heard about from another class?"

"Yeah, it's definitely her."

"Oh my god, I want her autograph so badly."

"She's not a movie star for god's sake."

The incessant chattering continued as Touma stared at the seat beside him.

Asuka was not in school today.

Is she really that hateful to the point where you'd skip school just to avoid being her classmate? Probably can't blame you for that. Having your fanbase being stolen overnight by an ESPer like that Queen of Tokiwadai.

If it was Touma, he would have dismissed such an event as misfortune. But to Asuka, it was her entire self worth being destroyed by a single touch within seconds.

He hoped that this would not affect her perfomance against the Angel that would be expected to resume its attack tomorrow.

During the previous battle, Mana had planned to drop an N2 mine that would somehow incapacitate Unit-02, but thanks to his intervention, Unit-01.

Why Unit-02? If she had targeted Unit-01 or the both of them, she would not have dropped the mine that soon.

According to Misato, that Mana might just be attempting to sabotage NERV so that the government would be forced to rely on Jet Alone, hence the JSSDF would then rightfully replace NERV as the organisation in charge of fighting the Angels.

Still, why only target Unit-02?

Touma could not stand it anymore. He got up from his seat and broke through the crowd that was surrounding Mana.

"Tell me. Why did you want to hurt Asuka?"

Mana clicked her fingers and everyone except for Touma and Rei, who was looking out of the window as usual, froze in place with eyelids drooping.

"She deserved it."

"What are you talking about? Sure, Asuka hates you, but she does not deserve a N2 mine right in her face."

"It'd be better if she died."

Mana was smiling throughout as she spoke.

She wanted her dead, not out of hatred nor vengeance, but sincerity. Mana wished for her to be dead as if that would keep her safe from something even more horrifying.

"... Why?"

"Death isn't terrifying," Mana glanced at Rei, "I've died once too, you know."

Then, her smile faded into a serious look.

"If you wish to extract her from the universe that I've kept her safe inside, beg Ayanami Rei as hard as you can, because she's the only person that can get you there. Be fast though, the path only lasts about an hour before it expires.

"By the way, the several rows of building disappearing was a favour done for me as a friend. Of course, only Asuka made it to that universe while the rest died. Don't ask me why, I don't know. I'm sure it's because their bodies could not adapt to that new universe."

Mana got up from her chair and left the classroom after closing the door as hard as she could.

"Shinji." Rei said.

The classroom was completely quiet, so Touma could still hear her clearly from a distance.

"We have to get to that universe she mentioned as soon as possible."

"Shinji. The Angel will attack tomorrow. If we leave, there would be no pilots left to fight the Angels."

"Don't fuck with me. We have to rescue her!"

"Tokyo-3 would be left unprotected. Even if the Angel completely destroys Tokyo-3 as a result, would you still choose to rescue Asuka?"

Touma paused for a moment.

Is saving one life more important, or protecting tens of thousands of lives more important? However, Asuka would be lost forever if he chose to protect Tokyo-3.

"... Then we will have to retrieve Asuka before the Angel attacks. What is the time difference between the two worlds?"

"4 days. You have 4 days in that universe to rescue Asuka. I must inform you that the path will disappear once the both of us pass through it."

"Then how do we get her back? Or even ourselves."

"That is up to you to figure out in 4 days."

"Fine. Let's go."

Rei thought as she left the classroom with Touma.

You are a selfish person, Shinji Ikari. To you, that one special life is infinitely more important than a hundred thousand lives.

* * *

A lone shimmering black, floating stone table titled SEELE #7 lit up in the dark space in front of Mana who sat on the floor drawing imaginary circles on the ground with a finger.

"Is that really okay? Saving that girl." SEELE #7 said.

"Our version of Instrumentality isn't so kind to the Lilins." Mana sighed.

"The descendants of Adam will thrive while the descendants of Lilith will be doomed to live in an endless nightmare of their own souls!"

"Thanks. I mean for sending the girl away from here."

"It wasn't your fault, you know. You didn't know this would happen."

Mana laughed as she finished drawing her 156th imaginary circle, "I just wanted to make it up to her."

"By sparing her from the pain of Instrumentality? Just what exactly did you do to her?"

"I _raped_ her mind. That's enough reason to spare her from the pain."

Not even SEELE #7 knew that that she was doing it for his brother, Tabris.

* * *

The light that filtered through the yellow curtains by the window woke Asuka up from her sweet slumber.

"Annoying," she said as she got off from her bed in a single room apartment. Kaji was away in Germany again due to his work and so she had the whole apartment to herself.

Heading to the kitchen after washing up, she made a cup of coffee and toasted a few slice of bread for breakfast. Just a few days ago, that Kirishima Mana (admittedly) had dropped a N2 mine onto Eva Unit-01 and she actually had the cheek to issue a challenge.

Try and stop you? Oh, if killing was legal, I would certainly take a knife and stab it right through your heart. Asuka thought as she chewed on her toast, washing it down with coffee.

Since it was only 7am in the morning and school starts at 8am, she took her time to enjoy her toast and coffee before changing into her uniform.

Strange. Why did her uniform suddenly turned navy-blue in colour? She rummaged through her wardrobe to find her real uniform that she always wore to school, but it seems as though that only her uniform was the only clothing different from her other clothes.

Forget it. I'll just wear that uniform then. Asuka decided that she could not possibly go to school in her pyjamas, nor in her other trendy clothings.

As she walked through the corridors of her apartment, she noticed that there were windmills dotted all over the city.

That's odd, did somebody built those windmills in Tokyo-3 overnight? Asuka got into an escalator and as soon she got out, she realized that she was in a totally different place from Tokyo-3.

Every now and then, small cylinderical shaped robots would roam the streets, cleaning up litter that some of the people left behind.

Asuka also realized that the usual chirping of the cicidas was not there.

It felt like Germany all over again, except that most of the people in the streets remained Japanese.

And then, from the corner of her eye, she noticed a fireball heading in her direction.

Instinctively, she sidestepped the fireball, setting a cylindrical robot beside her on fire instead, and saw that it was a man from the opposite side of the street who did that.

Fireball? Is this even possible? Yet, the man continued to throw multiple fireballs at her. It seemed as though the fire had magically appeared from his palm and he was throwing it like how one would throw a baseball. And why the man was targeting her, she had no idea.

Asuka could only dodge those fireballs and she ran into an alley to escape from the maniac.

This is crazy! How could a mere human be able to conjure fire just like that.

"Hey, hey, hey. Look what we got here." A muscular bearded man wearing sunglasses sneered as the group of his underlings surrounded Asuka like savages circling its prey before going in for the kill.

"What do you want from me?" Asuka said. There was only 6 of them, or 7 if you count the bearded man.

"No, no, no," the bearded man waved a finger, "we are here to punish you ESPers."

Asuka held her chest up high, "I'm not an ESPer. The name's Asuka Langley Soryu. I'm the pilot of Evangelion Unit-02. Ever heard of it?"

The group of 7 instantly broke into laughter.

"What is this? Some kind of a fantasy from a little girl?" An underling said, "But you're so developed..."

He attempted to reach for Asuka's chest using his slimy little hands to which she responded by gripping it, pulling his face closer to ground at a downwards angle before it was launched sharply upwards from a swift kick to the chin.

"Get her!" The remaining 5 underlings who had surrounded her in a circle now charged towards her.

It was like being in a circular space and it was getting smaller and smaller. Fortunately, years of training in combat had taught her that in situations like this, a simple 360 degrees sidesweep kick would suffice.

Asuka crouched low and in one sweeping motion, all of the underling lost their balance and started falling upon her like dominos.

Leaping up 2 meters, she gracefully somersaulted over an underling that was in the way and got up and turned behind. The 6 underlings was plied ontop of each other due to the narrow space. Meanwhile, the leader was nowhere to be seen.

Too easy. Asuka smirked. That'll teach them a lesson not to mess with me.

Out of thin air, a girl with two ponytails manifested in front of her and landed on the bodies.

"Judgement. I'm surprised you managed to dispatch of them so easily. Oh, and that man who threw those fireballs at you. Don't worry, he's already been apprehended by us. Apparently, he had a grudge on redheads like you, or something like that."

Asuka thought. She just appeared just like that? Was she also spying on me? Where in the world am I exactly at?! I need to get out of here now.

Even though her face had turned ghastly pale, Asuka managed a smile, "I need to err... I have something on. See you!" and she ran out of the alley as fast as her legs could take her.

Everything about the street now seemed foreign. The rows of shophouses and the occasional large skyscrapers and various windmills being planted all over the area like the trees which was much more modest in size than the windmills.

Yet, the street is currently the only thing that still made sense to Asuka.

Somebody. Shinji, Rei, Hikari, Misato, heck even Gendo. Tell me that this is all just a nightmare! Maybe you could all appear out of nowhere and erase the background, revealing that all the while, I was only in a virtual simulation room.

"There you are!" A black, long haired girl with blue eyes called out to Asuka. Beside her was a shorter girl who had flowers growing from her bobcut.

"Do I know you?"

The black, long haired girl said, "I'm Saten Ruiko," and pointing to the shorter girl beside her, "and she's Uiharu Kazari."

"Nope. I clearly have no idea who you are."

Saten pouted, "We only met yesterday and you've forgotten about us so soon. We're in the same class."

This is crazy. Just yesterday I was in school and I certainly don't know any Saten Ruiko nor a Uiharu Kazari. This can't be happening right? I'm actually no longer in Tokyo-3, and already enrolled in a school?

"Where exactly am I?"

"Come on! Although you're a transfer student, but surely you know that this is Academy City, am I right?"

Asuka looked at the two girls who also wore the same uniform as her.

It can't be happening right? That... I'm in that fictional city of ESPers?! I must be going crazy. This is all just a dream, wake up! But how... how do I wake up?

"So... I'm an ESPer now? And a Level 0?"

Saten patted Asuka's shoulder and grinned, "There's nothing to be ashamed in being a Level 0."

"Don't fuck with me! If you're powerless, how do you even survive in this city? Somebody could just throw a fireball at you, and BAM. You're dead. Finished."

"Out of the 2.3 million residents here, 60% are actually powerless and the rest with powers to some extent. Judgement and Anti-Skill keeps order around here so there's really no need to be that afraid." Saten said, "By the way, Uiharu is also a Judgement member so if you get into any trouble, you can count on her to save the day.

Seeing how a Level 0 like her is still alive, she took her word for it. And where are we going now... No wait, I'm an Evangelion pliot! Someone who has been living in Tokyo-3 until this morning.

"Hey!" Asuka suddenly shouted. "Do you know of Tokyo-3? Evangelions? Angels?"

"Eh? Tokyo-3?" Saten turned to Uiharu, "Do you know of a Tokyo-3?"

"Umm... Have you heard of a visual novel titled Girlfriend of Steel?" Uiharu said.

"And what has it got to do with Tokyo-3?" Asuka said.

Uiharu put a finger to her chin, trying to recall what she still remembered about the title, "It's about a girl named Kirishima Mana... and there's a Shinji Ikari as well. I don't remember much of the details since its been quite a while but apparently she's a spy of some sorts."

Asuka stood there in a daze. Kirishima Mana? No, how can this be? Did she freaking teleport me into this place? Even for an Angel, how could this be possible? I refuse to accept this! Don't think you've won, Kirishima Mana. I will find a way out here and I will rip your body into a thousand pieces.

Asuka had enough of this already, "I need to be left alone for a while..." and she started running, and running about aimlessly until she reached a park.

* * *

A certain Misaka Mikoto was there again kicking a certain vending machine in her chaser style, which involved executing a 45 degree oblique kick to the side of the machine. After that is done, the machine is sure to spit out several cans.

However, while she could not choose what would come out, it did not really matter.

Asuka sat at a bench as she noticed the brown haired girl kicking a vending machine. She started to consider the fact that she might just be stuck here forever.

A gloomy vision, no doubt. She now felt homesick taken to the next level squared to the power of 100.

The park was unusually quiet and it seemed as though the two of them were the only ones here.

Just then, another bunch of thugs appeared, surrounding Mikoto and cornered her into the vending machine. They claimed that they have a old debt to settle.

Magically, lightning started to pour from her body, electrocuting them on the spot.

Mikoto spotted her from a distance and Asuka wondered if she was going to kill her as well to get rid of any witnesses. If she is currently inside an Eva, she would not hesitate to charge forward but now, she truly understood the phrase, "But I am only human."

No way she could defeat a lightning godness even though she is Asuka Langley Soryu, the child prodigy who had graduated from university at the age of 14. Besides that, being an accomplished Eva pliot which also meant she was well trained in combat.

However, she had no ESPer ability, thus no matter how good she was, she would die in one move.

"Oi, are you okay?" Mikoto called out, surprised at how pale Asuka had become.

Asuka stood up and got into a defensive pose. Powerless or not, she will not be going down without a fight.

Mikoto said. "Huh? Oh don't worry, I'm not going to fry you like how I fried them." She turned to the thugs who laid on the ground, with smoke still emitting from their body. As Mikoto would put it in her own words, freshly baked from the oven,

"Ah, so there's where you've been." Saten said as she appeared from a distance with Uiharu.

"Saten, you know her?" Mikoto said.

"Yup. She's a newly transferred student. Same class as me."

The same girl with two ponytail appeared out of thin air again, in a manner like pouncing upon her prey.

"Oneesama~~~~"

"Kuroko, stop that!" Misaka valiantly tried to shake off that besotted, clinging girl.

Asuka facepalmed herself at the sight of this while Saten and Uiharu could only look at them sheepishly.

* * *

"Oh its you. It's strange that you'd run at the sight of me like you've seen a ghost." Kuroko said after Mikoto succeded in shaking her off by bathing her in an electric waterfall, "Isn't ESPer abilities a common knowledge here in Academy City here? Why would you be shocked as if I had accomplished an impossible feat."

Asuka thought. Because you're a freaking ghost! They can teleport about freely. Wait, did I die in my sleep? Has Kirishima Mana killed me in my sleep. Is this heaven? But it seems a bit noisy than peaceful. Speaking of which, who the hell would pick fights in heaven.

"Is this heaven?" Asuka wanted to make sure. Maybe she would feel better if this was true.

"No, this is Academy City, are you really okay?" Saten said.

"Don't you remember? We're in the same class," Uiharu said. Just yesterday she was hitting it off so well with Saten and her, but today she had completely changed.

"I'm Asuka Langley Soryu. I'm the pliot of Evangelion Unit 02. I don't know how I got here but I need to return to Tokyo-3."

"What in the world are you talking about? You're just a transfer student from Germany. We all know that your name is Asuka. What's Evangelion? How do you get to Tokyo-3 anyway? They don't exist, or maybe in that visual novel only." Saten said.

"Hey... Are you okay?" Misaka said. Although they had only met just a few minutes ago, she was concerned at how afraid she seem to be.

"No!" Asuka snapped. All she wanted right now was for this nightmare to end.

"Do you need to see a psychiatrist or something?" Kuroko said.

"We're running late for classes already." Saten said, "Let's go."

"Are you really okay?" Uiharu asked Asuka, who still looked distraught for some reason.

"We should... hurry to class." Asuka forced a smile. It was better than running about in the city without any clear goal in her mind.

* * *

Asuka thought as she walked through the corridors of the classroom with Saten and Uiharu.

Sakugawa Middle School, huh. They actually have better facilities than that oppressive school back in Tokyo-3.

She had contemplated living a normal life as a schoolgirl in this city as she entered the classroom of Class 1A until she spotted a familiar presence.

Oh, its just Wondergirl staring out of the window again... Wait what?

Asuka tore through the sea of desks and chairs as she headed to where Rei was, causing a commotion among the other students who were already seated.

"I don't think that's how you make a good first impression to somebody who had just transferred here also." Uiharu commented as she entered the classroom just in time to witness this scene.

Asuka slammed down on the front of Rei's table, "Wondergirl! Care to explain why in the world is the both of us doing in such a weird city."

Rei slowly turned away from the window and faced Asuka. From her uniform, she took a piece of paper out and placed it on the table, smoothening the creases on the paper.

Asuka scrutinized the piece of paper closely, "District...? And a whole bunch of nonsense! Is this some kind of a stupid joke? It's not funny at all."

"I must be the only one that can decipher this message. This is to prevent any unnecessary interference." Rei said.

"Do me the favour of explaining the message then, Wondergirl."

"My name is Ayan- Never mind. On 12am, we will head to District 19 to save a girl."

"She can teleport us out of here?"

"Perhaps."

A boy who was a Level 2 Telekinetic rearranged the tables and chairs like a puppeteer manipulating invisible strings attached to his puppets from the back of the classroom and whispered to a girl beside her, "I guess it takes a redhead to melt that ice princess."

"It takes a fire to melt a glacier, you didn't know?"

That boy smacked the girl on the head, "Of course I know that, but she totally ignored her yesterday."

Asuka heard the boy crystal clear from a distance.

Who exactly was the Asuka from yesterday, and since when was my hearing that good?

She estimated the distance between her and the boy to be about a few meters since Rei sat in second row from the front. It felt strangely natural, like piloting an Eva, but she clearly was not in one.

Something is definitely amiss.

* * *

"How do one get to District 19?" Rei asked as she sat in a cafe beside Asuka with Saten and Mikoto. Uiharu had Judgement work, thus she was not here.

"Why would you want to go there?" Saten said.

"I am searching for the rumoured mysterious 6th Level 5. If one reaches there at exactly 12 midnight, one will be able to spot it."

Asuka thought while she sucked on her mango parfait. She didn't even bat an eyelid when lying. As expected of Wondergirl.

"Ah, that recent urban rumour. Well, there has been a lot of speculation," Saten leaned closer to Rei, "Do you happen to have some sort of insider information."

"I would suggest you to not go there." Mikoto said as she pushed Saten back to her seat.

"Why not. I am very interested in knowing who is the mysterious 6th Level 5." Rei said flatly, with no hint of excitement nor curiousity.

I take back what I just said about you being a wonderful liar. Asuka thought as she looked at Rei and Mikoto, who seemed a bit uneasy.

"Anyway," Mikoto said as her voice grew stronger though she tried her best to keep it in check, "Just stay out of that area."

"I must know who is that Level 5."

Sparks started to flutter around her bangs as Mikoto continued to restrain herself from electrocuting the blue haired albino who seemed intent in going there no matter what.

"What's wrong, Mikoto?" Saten said.

"Nothing."

The sparks vanished as Mikoto put on a smile; though rather forced, so as to signal that everything was just fine.

"Anyway... Good luck with your hunt!" Saten said, "But there's a curfew being imposed so there's no bus that would take you to District 19 after 7pm."

"Don't you have a PDA? Why don't you show us the route instead. We'll go by foot, and probably after a few hours of walking, we'll probably reach there." Asuka said.

Mikoto trembled with frustration as Saten excitedly took out her PDA and started tapping on it to bring out the map.

There could be only one reason why the both of them would want to go to District 19.

No, she will no longer allow anyone else to die under his cruel, snowy hands.

* * *

Underneath the warm moonlight, a young man with unusually pale skin and white moppy hair was sitting at the balcony ledge of a building in District 19.

He could clearly see his target about 5 meters below him armed with a rifle; the 9985th clone of the strongest Electromaster, Misaka Mikoto.

Rows of buildings and street lamps that illuminated the area were neatly lined up beside the main road where the clone was currently at.

District 19 had became a ghost town due to a nuclear incident that supposedly happened in District 19, which ordered an immediate evacuation of the district. He knew that the nuclear incident was a complete lie so as to chase all the people away.

Well, at least he had the entire district as his playground instead of hiding in alleys where space was limited.

Accelerator, the strongest ESPer in Academy City wondered again why did he agree to that Level 6 shift experiment which requires him to kill 20,000 clones in order to achieve Level 6. Even though he had already killed 9984 clones, but there was something about killing those clones who could not even put up a proper fight that bothered him.

Guilt?

Accelerator remembered it was guilt when he killed the first MISAKA clone but as he killed more and more clones, the boundary between guilt and boredom started to blur.

The clone looked up at Accelerator as he sat at the balcony edge looking bored, "This is MISAKA Serial Number 9985 and the experiment will begin in exactly in 6 minutes at 12:00am, says Misaka as she informs you of the time."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just shut the hell up."

"Do you wish to confirm the passcode with Misaka so as to verify that Misaka is indeed part of the experiment, questions Misaka as Misaka believes that this is a good option."

"... No. Haven't you guys learnt that after 9984 encounters with me, there is no way you will ever touch me, not to mention defeating me. Even though you people may be clones but do you really see your life as something worthless, worthless enough to throw it away just like that?"

"Misaka can be automatically produced at the press of a button as long as the proper machinery and chemicals are prepared, explains Misaka. Misaka has an artificially made body and a borrowed mind and her value is 180,000 yen with 10,015 more in reserve, says Misaka as she continues to explain."

Accelerator was annoyed at her response, "Tch, don't tell me what I already fucking know," and he jumped off the building, landing in front of the clone and cushioned the impact using his ability.

"I never expected my opponent to look almost like Wondergirl."

Turning around, Accelerator saw two girls approaching in his direction and stopped about 4 meters away from him.

One had red hair tied into a ponytail while the other had blue hair... in the same hairstyle as him, and had the same unusually pale skin colour with eyes equally as red as him. He could tell where did the source of the voice originated from.

The girl with the red hair casually plucked a streetlamp off from the ground and twisted the metal frame into a hoop. So long as she visualized herself plioting an Eva, any superhuman feat that the Eva could do, she could also do.

"I never understood the Personal Reality thing when I read the book, but now I truly do."

"Are you here to challenge me, is that what you mean?"

"I just wish to save that girl over there," Asuka smiled as she looked at the clone, "but it seems as though I'll have to... incapacitate you permanently in order to do so."

Accelerator's grin widened in response to her threat. Finally, a more interesting opponent than the predictable MISAKA clones.

"Try me."

Asuka hurled the hoop towards Accelerator like throwing a bowling ball but it got deflected and crashed to the side of a building just inches before it reached him.

"Is that all you've got?"

Wasting no time, Asuka leapt forward like a bullet and sent a fist across his face.

It was truly a monumental achievement that she managed to touch Accelerator.

Due to the nature of his ability, nobody could even lay a finger on him, not to mention punching him in the face.

Accelerator reached out his hand and gripped the neck of the insolent fool who dared to touch him.

"INTERESTING. BUT DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT ABILITY OF YOURS CAN BYPASS MY DEFENCE FOREVER?"

Asuka tried to break free by giving his leg a good kick, but an unknown force in the opposite direction nearly crushed the bones of her toes into pieces.

Accelerator repeatedly pounded Asuka to the ground, forming craters before he sent her sliding through the road as if it was snow.

"It's too late. I've fully analysed that strange variation of the vectors from your unusual existence right down to the last mathematical detail."

"... unusual existence...?"

This was what she only heard before her world faded into black, with pain accompanying her to the depths of the darkness.

* * *

Accelerator twisted his wrist to loosen up the joints while looking at the remaining girl who remained as composed as always and still in her original position.

"I've always wondered how would it feel like if I were to fight my own clone. Even though you're different, but you'll pass since we're both albinos after all."

"You are only half of what your true form is. You will regret in choosing to engage in combat with me."

"True form...?"

Accelerator chuckled softly at first, but he soon burst into a maniacal laughter.

"So you're saying that I'm only 50% away to reach Level 6? If this is only 50%... I see, I see, 100% would truly propel me to the level where even challenging me is a sin!"

A dangerous glint flashed in his eyes.

"Does that mean I have to defeat you in order to achieve that remaining 50%?"

Accelerator stamped his feet lightly on the ground but the impact caused wide cracks to form, reducing it into rubbles. The shock had shattered the windows from the buildings, causing glass shards to rain down like it was winter.

However, there was no sign of any change in expression from the girl. She remained composed as before.

"Heh. Are all albinos like that? Well, I don't blame you for being bored," Accelerator said, "I was just warming up after all."

Mikoto burst out from a window of a building, riding a large metal plate like a surfboard in the air controlled by her electromagnetism and landed beside Rei.

"I'll distract him," Mikoto pointed to an unconscious Asuka, "You'll take her away to the nearest hospital now!"

"I will be the one to distract him," Rei corrected, "You will send her to the nearest hospital."

"What are you talking about?! Do you even know what he is capable of? His ability is Vector Change. He can manipulate anything that moves, whether be it heat, momentum or electricity. There is no way you can stand up against a one way road like that!" Mikoto grew flustered, "That is why I'm begging you, stay away!"

"I am the rumoured #6 Level 5."

"Huh...?"

"I am the trump card against the #1. He will die in one move if he's too overconfident. Two if he decides to take me seriously."

Mikoto looked at the girl who revealed herself as the mysterious #6 that even the Bank had no records of. Ayanami Rei, the #6? However, she spotted a flaw in her logic.

"If you could finish the #1 in two moves, then why are you only #6?"

"I am only a trump card against the Main Plan in case something goes wrong."

"And that's the difference between the #1 and the #3," Accelerator interjected, "So it seems as though they've found a replacement for her, the original #6. I wonder if the ability is the same though."

"Trust me." Rei looked at Mikoto, though her face remained as emotionless as the clone behind Accelerator.

"... Fine. You'll end this experiment in one move right?"

"Yes."

Mikoto smiled with tears nearly bursting from the corners of her eyes.

"Thank you."

She went to carry Asuka on her back and headed off to the direction of the hospital.

* * *

Accelerator's voice was as chilly as the breeze that blew past Rei.

"So its just you and me left.

"That was an awful lie you made. #6? Don't make me laugh. I know who the real #6 is. But I really wanted that #3 to be out of the way, so I decided to play along."

"Despite that, do you believe that I am capable of ending your life in one move?"

"No. Because I never go easy on fellow albinos like you, thus according to you, it would be in two moves."

Playing around with the rubbles under his foot, Accelerator lightly kicked a small piece of asphalt in Rei's direction. The end result was a tiny meteorite flying in her direction.

To his surprise, a translucent, orange hexagonal barrier manifested in front of her, shielding her from the meteorite and it dropped harmlessly to the ground as soon as it came into contact with the barrier.

"What's this? Is this your ability?"

Accelerator burst forward, covering the distance between him and Rei almost instantaneously by altering the vectors under his feet and swerved a fist in an attempt to shatter the barrier. When that failed, he pushed himself against the barrier and closed his eyes, trying to analyse the vectors governing the formation of the barrier.

"Fascinating... like #4's shield but it seems as though I will have to invent a new form of vector manipulation just to break through."

"Are you able to do so?"

"It will only take 2 minutes. I applaud your efforts in making this challenging but its unfortunate everything will end that fast."

Being presented with 2 interesting opponents made Accelerator forgot all about the clone who remained unusually quiet throughout.

"The MISAKA network has recovered from a temporary state of disruption, informs Misaka as Misaka notices that you are currently pushing against a translucent, orange hexagon barrier to get to a girl. Misaka would advise a much more subtle way if you wish to break through the wall of that girl. However, it is now 12.00 am and the experiment will begin as of now, states Misaka as she will begin making her move against you."

Accelerator heard a clicking sound of a rifle. He had totally forgotten about the clone and the experiment. Shit.

"Too bad." Rei said.

"This was a fucking trap from the start."

If he were to stop analysing the barrier and throw up a simple reflection, the barrier might morph into a spear and pierce through him since his defence system cannot reflect vectors from the barrier yet. However, if he did not throw up a simple reflection, the clone would then fire a bullet right through him.

"What would be your choice?"

Accelerator never got the chance to answer that because the bullet was fired through his back right after she finished her sentence.

He collapsed to the ground due to the sheer pain in a pool of blood. Since Accelerator could reflect anything in his path, he never once understood how did it feel like to be in pain. The shock was too much for him.

The clone walked right up to the once mighty Accelerator who now laid silently in a pool of blood and pointed the rifle at his head.

"Misaka will now avenge the death of #9983, says Misaka as she prepares to fire at her enemy."

'BAM'

However, the bullet ended up as a clean shot through the clone's right eye.

"It seems as though his reflection ability still work despite being unconscious, Misaka confirms as Misaka realizes that the bullet got reflected back at her.

"Error! Misaka is unable to connect to network. New information about Accelerator's reflection ability is unable to be uploaded to the network, Misaka states with a certain extent of worry."

A sharp, translucent lance from Rei's palm went through the face of the clone, killing her on the spot. Now, only through the uniform could one clearly identify from the mangled face of the corpse that was the clone of Misaka Mikoto.

Rei looked up at the moon.

"Even though the message was heavily coded, there is an unnecessary interference after all."

"Do you super mind if I were to talk to you for a moment?"

A girl with short, brown hair said as she now stood behind Rei from a comfortable distance about 2 meters apart.

Rei turned behind to face her and the girl smiled.

"I'm Kinuhata Saiai. Nice to meet you."

* * *

Mikoto ran along the dusty roads of District 19, hoping to get Asuka to a hospital as soon as she could. However, she stopped for a moment to catch her breath.

"She's pretty heavy."

A comment that would be taken very seriously so long as your gender is female. Even Mikoto herself felt slightly embarrassed for saying such things.

Just then, she saw a girl with a soft, tea coloured long hair with an open palm facing her.

"Mugino...!"

A white flash of light surrounded her and Mikoto closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact.

"I suppose we should just get things done and over with. Useless chattering only impedes the process."

Mugino adjusted her clothes, half expecting to see two roasted corpses that would earn her team a huge sum of money. Even though that blast was only meant to injure her, but you never know.

When the smoke cleared, Mugino saw a man with spiky hair mysteriously appeared, together with Mikoto and the girl that she was carrying throughout.

"Teleporter? How can this be? There is no way you can have two abilities at the same time!"

Mikoto looked at the man who had his right hand raised to shield the both of them from the beam. That position looked exactly like a certain Kamijou Touma, but he should be currently in a hospital, unconscious. She had visited him herself a few days ago.

When she asked what had happened to him, a nun who was there said that because he saved her life, that is why he ended up in this state.

"Who are you?" Mikoto said.

The street lamps that lined the roads were not lit up and she could only make out the shadow of a spiky haired guy from the pale moonlight.

Touma sighed.

Back in Academy City, but in a different time period from where he came from.

Apparently, according to a Nagato Yuki when he entered her universe through the path Mana mentioned, a strange interference prevented him from returning to his original timeline.

Such misfortune. Perhaps he was asking for it after all.

How could I just abandon a girl trapped in another universe like you, Kamijou Touma! Have some sense of sympathy.

Nagato also mentioned that it would be best that he keeps his identity a secret if possible for there would be two Kamijou Touma in this timeline.

"... Me? I'm just a passer-by."

Mugino fired another beam. "Enough talk!"

Like a white pillar of light, it traveled at an amazing speed towards Touma, however, it vanished into thin air when he raised his right hand to defend himself against the beam.

Imagine Breaker.

The ability to negate any supernatural phenomenon and the source of his misfortune.

The path was fortunately not negated by his ability due to Nagato's universe being a bridge connecting multiple universes together that happened to be a natural phenomenon. (apparently this is due to a certain girl which she refused to give more details about).

"Go now," Touma said, "I will distract her for you."

Mikoto nodded in acknowledgement and ran off.

* * *

"Just because you can deflect my electron beams doesn't mean you'll win."

Mugino eyed the boy who erased her beams with his right hand as if it was just an ugly stain.

"Why are you after her?" Touma said.

"Oh, you mean #3? I have a job, mister. Unlike you kids who go to school and live on your parent's allowances and scholarships."

"So you will sacrifice the girl that she was carrying just to finish your job?!"

"It's a job, I can't always choose what I like."

Touma clenched his right fist.

"If you think a job would allow you to disregard a life to such a extent..."

Mugino readied herself for his attack as her body slowly grew bright orange.

"Then I will shatter that illusion of yours."

Changing herself into an intangible form of energy, she launched herself like a human pillar of beam towards him.

Touma merely stood in his position and swung his fist hard against the pillar, sending her to the side and she crashed against a nearby street lamp, slightly bending its metal frame.

Mugino got up and fired a few more beams at him, however, he negated all of them with ease while approaching dangerously closer to her.

Even the translucent white barrier that she pulled out as a last resort to stop him vanished as soon as he touched it.

Touma gave her one more punch right at her face, knocking her out cold.

However, he forgot that ITEM was a four men group.

* * *

Mikoto was glad to see a hospital in sight as she crossed the borders of District 19 into District 14.

"Hang in there, just a little more."

However, a thick smoke suddenly filled Mikoto's line of vision and her legs slowly began to give way.

"This is anesthesia..."

Her mind grew heavier and heavier and she fell asleep soon after.

When the smoke cleared, a blonde girl with blue eyes appeared and dragged the both of them into a van.

"That was easier than I thought."


End file.
